January 2011 Esalen Catalog

Transcription

The Esalen Catalog
January– June 2011
the view from big sur
W
ho are we? Where do we come from, where are we heading, as a culture and as a whole human family?
D A N I E L B I A N C H E T TA
What is our “human nature”? Are we part of Nature herself, evolving out of the teeming life of our mother,
the Earth—or were we somehow separately created, to rule over Nature? These are the deepest questions of
our age—or of any age. The difference today is that these fundamental questions are out in the open, hotly and sometimes
violently disputed, dividing groups and nations all across our shared world.
Esalen was founded, nearly a half century ago, to take up questions like these in a whole new way. Instead of assuming that
each traditional area of study was a separate discipline, sealed off from all the others, we would work with the idea of “the
integral,” meaning that each human capacity, each experience, is part of a larger whole. Here we
would assume that all the dimensions of our humanness—spirit, body, community, heart, and
mind—are deeply connected, each one drawing on and enriching all the others. So instead of
studying just “body,” say, in the way of mainstream medicine, at Esalen we’d study “mind/body,”
and then “body/emotions/relationships,” and “body/spirit/social action,” all in the context of a
larger human evolution.
And instead of studying just in labs and libraries, academic courses and conferences, we’d study
together, right here, through hands-on, real-life experience and exploration. Teachers—including
the best and the most prominent in the world, then and now—would guide us and offer exploratory
paths. But the new data, the useful knowledge, would come from us and our fellow students, and flow out in applications
and practices in our own lives, and in the world.
What a difference these shifts in “curriculum” have made, and continue to make today, in our lives and our world! Today we
have integral medicine, citizen diplomacy in a world of NGOs, integral leadership studies, spiritual practices based in all
these mind/body/political studies, holistic environmental approaches that include social, experiential education itself as
a movement and a method—and so much more. In each of these cases and so many others, Esalen has played a key role in
launching, nurturing, platforming, and cross-fertilizing these new ideas and forms in our culture.
When we take a course at Esalen, we’re stepping into this tradition of open, no-boundaries exploration. Our own unique
personal experiences and discoveries are then part of this great shared project, moving our questing human spirit ahead
in exciting new ways. Think of trauma healing as an example, or mindfulness in social action, or leadership through the
principles of permaculture, and so much more. In each case our own explorations here play a part in moving these new
fields ahead, while opening up part of our own lives at the same time.
Esalen has been called the “think tank of the new culture”—and rightly so, as long as we understand “thinking” in this more
active, more fully embodied way. We know that the emergent “new world culture” is very much up for grabs these days,
with our future hanging in the balance. The pioneering explorations going on today in courses and conferences at Esalen—
and now countless other centers and institutes, colleges and also centers of spiritual/religious practice that have taken up
Esalen’s integral approach to lifelong learning—are carrying this ferment and this questing forward, to create a better world.
Come and be part of it, in a spirit of serious exploration, joyful celebration, and inspiring service. See you soon at Esalen!
Gordon Wheeler
President
January – June 2011
Volume l, Number 1
contents
Esalen Notes .............................................. 2
Friends of Esalen ...................................... 2
General Information ............................... 3
Guide to Workshops................................ 4
Spotlight on Conscious Business ........ 7
Seminar Spotlight ................................... 8
Family Spotlight..................................... 10
Esalen Seminars ..................................... 11
Special Programs .................................... 93
Work Study Program .............................95
Work Study Application.................... 100
Biographical Information ................. 101
Reservation Information................... 110
Scholarship Information................... 110
Reservation Form ................................ 112
Continuing Education ....................... 113
contact
Website: www.esalen.org
E-mail: info@esalen.org
Mailing Address: Esalen Institute,
55000 Highway 1, Big Sur, CA 93920
General Information: 831-667-3000
(ext. 7402 to leave a message for a guest)
Workshop Reservations: Preregistration
Welcome to
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
®
is required for all Esalen programs.
Online: www.esalen.org
Phone: 831-667-3005
Monday–Thursday, 9 am–7 pm
Friday, Saturday & Sunday, 9 am–5 pm
Fax: 831-667-2724
Mail: See address above
Mail and fax reservations must include a
completed reservation form, available on
page 112.
Other Reservations: For Personal Retreats,
massage appointments, and van service
between Esalen and the Monterey Transit
Plaza, call 831-667-3005.
esalen notes
You can register online for
Esalen programs at www.esalen.org.
Workshops appear online before
the catalog is printed.
telephone. They accommodate up
to two adults and two children.
For details, see Reservation
Information, page 110.
• • •
• • •
Share the magic of Esalen by connecting with Esalen’s Facebook
community at http://tinyurl.com/
esalenfacebook or on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/EsalenInstitute.
As part of its dedication to the
humanities and sciences, Esalen
offers its facilities to organizations
and individuals for mission-aligned
private conferences, meetings,
courses, and trainings. Esalen can
accommodate groups up to 124 people. Conferences can be two, five, or
seven days and include meals, movement classes, and use of the hot
springs and Art Center when available. Most conferences are scheduled at least one year in advance. For
more information and to schedule,
contact Conference Coordinator
Laura Doherty at 831-620-6244.
• • •
Nestled behind the lush Esalen
Garden and perched at the cliff ’s
edge, Point Houses are upgraded
accommodations for seminarians
and those on Personal Retreat.
Each house is a private, two-room
suite with a living room with wood
stove, separate bedroom, sleeping
loft, full kitchen and dining area,
private redwood deck overlooking
the Pacific, Internet and in-room
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
S
friends of esalen
R
A
s a Friend of Esalen you can help ensure
Esalen’s place in the world. It is through the
generosity of friends like you that Esalen
can continue its mission of developing human
potential. Your support not only benefits current
programs but helps secure Esalen’s long-term financial future. Donations are tax-deductible and provide
support for sustainability initiatives, intern programs,
our organic farm and garden, the Gazebo School
Park, special projects, and Esalen’s visionary Center
for Theory and Research.
As a way of showing our gratitude, Friends who
donate $50 or more will receive a $25 reduction on
all catalog workshops for the next twelve months.
Donors will also receive the Esalen Catalog and a
triannual Friends of Esalen newsletter for one year
and be eligible to book a Personal Retreat at Esalen.
Many Friends choose to make Esalen a part of their
long-range plans by including a bequest or deferred
gift to Esalen in their estate plans. A charitable
bequest is one of the easiest ways you can give that
will make a lasting difference to the Institute.
If you would like further information on donating
to Esalen, please contact Nancy Worcester at 831667-3032.
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Friends Circle: $50+
Hot Springs Circle: $250+
Sustainers Circle: $500+
Benefactors Circle: $1,000+
Founders Circle: $5,000+
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Partners Circle: $15,000+
Anniversary Circle: $30,000+
Coast Circle: $50,000+
Trustees Circle: $100,000+
Name ___________________________________________________________________________
Phone___________________________________________________________________________
Address_________________________________________________________________________
City __________________________________ State __________ Zip__________________
E-mail___________________________________________________________________________
Please make checks payable to Esalen Institute, in U.S. currency
drawn on a U.S. bank, or use one of the charge cards below:
q MasterCard
q Visa
q American Express
Amount ________________________________________________________________________
Card No. _______________________________________________________________________
Exp. Date ______________________________________________________________________
Signature ______________________________________________________________________
Please complete this form or the inside flap of the envelope insert
included in the catalog and return with your gift. Check the box on
the outside of the envelope marked “Friends of Esalen.” Donations can
also be made online at www.esalen.org. Thank you for your support.
Esalen Institute is a non-profit public charity corporation, exempt
from income tax under IRC section 501(c)(3). Contributions are
tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.
Esalen Institute, 55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, California 93920-9546
Catalog Requests: 831-667-3000
Esalen Board of Trustees:
Sam Yau Chair
Bill James
Mary Ellen Klee
Nancy Lunney-Wheeler ex officio
David Lustig
Tricia McEntee
Anisa Mehdi
Michael Murphy
Marilyn Schlitz
Cordell Wesselink ex officio
Gordon Wheeler
Cofounder & Chair Emeritus:
Michael Murphy
President: Gordon Wheeler
Chief Executive Officer: Tricia McEntee
Esalen Catalog Staff:
Programming: Cheryl Fraenzl, Laura Doherty,
Jaqui Hope, Nancy Lunney-Wheeler
Editor: Stacy Carlson
Design & Production: Terry McGrath
The Esalen Catalog is published biannually by
the Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA 93920-9546.
Printed on recycled paper.
©2010 Esalen Institute. All rights reserved.
ISSN 1088-2782
Subscription Information:
For a one-year subscription to the Esalen
Catalog (two issues), please submit the
enclosed subscription request form on the
envelope insert attached to this catalog.
If the envelope is missing, please send
your name, address, and e-mail address to:
Catalog Subscriptions, Esalen Institute,
55000 Highway 1, Big Sur, California, 93920.
Including your e-mail address grants Esalen
permission to e-mail news and information
to you including the Esalen eNEWS
newsletter. Catalog subscriptions are free in
the United States, but a donation to help
offset printing and mailing costs would be
greatly appreciated. Subscriptions are mailed
outside the United States for $35 per year.
cover photograph:Daniel Bianchetta
2
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general information
S
ince 1962, The Esalen Institute has been
devoted to the exploration of what Aldous
Huxley called the “human potential,” the
world of unrealized human capacities that lies at
the growing edge of consciousness. Esalen is
known for its blend of East/West philosophies,
experiential/didactic workshops, a steady influx
of expert teachers from around the world, and
its breathtaking grounds and natural hot
springs. Once home to a Native American tribe
called the Esselen, Esalen is situated on the spectacular Big Sur coastline with the Santa Lucia
Mountains rising sharply behind.
There are many ways to experience Esalen.
Here is an overview of programs to help get
you started.
Workshops
Weekend, five- and seven-day workshops and
seminars range in subject matter from Gestalt to
visual art. The Guide to Workshops on pages 4-6
provides a list of all programs by subject, and the
Seminars section contains full descriptions of
weekend, five-, and seven-day programs, listed
chronologically.
Work Study
Work Study programs provide an intensive
month-long course of study for those who want
to make a directed commitment to self-exploration, growth, and the Esalen community for a
longer period. See pages 95-99 for a full description of the Work Study program.
Personal Retreats
Personal Retreats offer the opportunity to nourish body, mind, heart, and soul without participating in a workshop. Those on Personal Retreat
structure their time at Esalen themselves, and
can participate in daily yoga and movement
classes, enjoy the hot springs, meditate, and
explore Esalen’s beautiful land. Personal Retreats
are available on a limited basis; see page 111 for
more information.
In addition to its structured programs, Esalen
has many ongoing events and features to
enrich your stay.
Esalen® Massage incorporates long flowing
strokes over the whole body, and helps release the
stresses of everyday life, leaving the receiver feeling integrated and deeply relaxed. Other modalities often available at Esalen include Cortical
Field Reeducation®, Craniosacral Work, LaStone®,
Rolfing, Shiatsu, Thai Massage, and Transformational
Kinesiology. Massage and bodywork reservations
must be made and paid for in advance. Call 831667-3005. If you are coming to Esalen for a massage only, call 831-667-3002.
Hot Springs
Esalen is the steward of a natural hot springs
overlooking the Pacific. The baths are a source of
relaxation and healing for those who visit, and
you may catch a glimpse into the life of a sea
otter, seal, or migratory whale while you enjoy
the tubs. The baths are open 24 hours. Swimsuits
are optional, and nudity common, in the hot
springs and massage areas.
Daily Movement Arts Classes
Every day, Esalen offers a schedule of free classes
open to everyone. Offerings can include yoga,
chanting, meditation, free-form dance, and didjeridoo meditation at the baths. You will receive
a schedule when you arrive.
Wednesday Evening Programs
Esalen hosts visiting scholars and teachers, who
interface with the rest of the Esalen community
in many ways. Usually there is a scheduled program on Wednesday evenings for visiting scholars, workshop leaders, or Esalen staff to share
their expertise with the larger Esalen community.
Esalen has long been known for its unique massage and bodywork modalities, developed by
innovative practitioners at the baths overlooking
the Pacific, and offered to guests during their stay.
Qualified childcare providers may be available
for parents taking workshops outside of the
Gazebo Park School hours. For more information and to enroll for Gazebo Park School please
call 831-667-3026. To ensure space in the program we ask for at least one month advance
notice for enrollment.
Accommodations
Esalen offers several types of accommodations
including standard shared rooms, premium
rooms, and the Point Houses. For full descriptions and pricing, see page 110.
Friends of Esalen
Friends of Esalen are supporters whose donations of $50 or more will benefit Esalen programs and help build Esalen’s long-term financial
base. Please see page 2 for a description of the
many benefits of becoming a Friend.
Farm and Garden
Esalen’s five-acre farm and garden produces hundreds of varieties of vegetables for the kitchen.
In addition to enjoying the farm and garden’s
bounty during mealtimes, guests may wander
among the fields, enjoy the flowers during
spring and summer, participate in farm- and permaculture-oriented workshops throughout the
year, and volunteer with the farm and garden
crew during their stay.
Children and Families
Esalen Massage and Bodywork
gram for children from infants to age 6. This
program is available during the week to children
of seminarians, workshop leaders, personal
retreatants, as well as Big Sur families. The school
offers children the opportunity for full immersion with the natural world through its rich,
child-centered park environment and ecologybased curriculum. Gazebo School Park’s low
teacher to child ratio allows for individual attention. Activities include caring for the school’s
animals, gardening, harvesting fruits and vegetables, cooking, expressive arts, literacy activities,
dramatic play, and excursions to explore Esalen’s
unique campus. Children may be enrolled for a
half day, full day, or several days while here at
Esalen. Hours are Monday-Friday, 9:30 am–
4:30pm.
Esalen welcomes families and offers a selection
of family-oriented workshops. See page 6 for a
full listing of family-friendly offerings.
Additionally, Esalen’s Gazebo School Park is an
on-site, state-licensed, outdoor preschool pro-
Accreditation and
Continuing Education
Many educational institutions recognize Esalen
programs as eligible for credit in their curricula;
check with your university or college. Additional
information can be provided if needed. Esalen
provides continuing education (CE) credit for
psychologists, MFTs, LCSWs, nurses, and bodyworkers. See page 113 for details.
For more information about your stay at
Esalen, please see the For Your Information
section on page 111.
Esalen is a center for experimental education. We offer
neither psychotherapy nor assurances of change.
3
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guide to workshops
T
his is a guide to the workshops
offered in this catalog. Many of them
defy easy categorization and could be
cross-referenced across many disciplines; most
are listed in one or two main subject areas. If
you have never been to Esalen or taken an
Esalen workshop, you might consider the
“Experiencing Esalen” workshop scheduled
throughout the catalog and listed in the
Integral Practices section of this guide. Please
call the Esalen office if you have questions
concerning a workshop.
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ARTS & CREATIVITY
Visual Arts
Writing
January 23-28 • Writing in(to) Bliss
January 28-30 • The Writing Life
February 13-18 • (Re)Writing Your Story
March 6-11 • Dangerous Writing
March 20-25 • Storytelling from the Heart
April 3-8 • Proprioceptive Writing® Immersion
April 17-22 • Creative Writing and Storytelling
April 22-24 • Yoga and Creative Writing
May 29-June 3 • Women’s Lives in Pieces
June 10-12 • Spiritual Memoir
Music / Rhythm / Dance
January 7-9 • Singing Gestalt
January 9-14 • Songwriting: Catch and Release
January 14-16 • Brazilian Soul: Dance and Drumming
January 16-21 • Kirtan Flight School
January 28-30 • Being Danced: 5Rhythms® Essentials
January 30-Feb 4 • Dream Dance: 5Rhythms® and Gestalt
January 30-Feb 4 • Finding Your Long Lost Musician
February 4-6 • Finding Your Long Lost Musician
February 11-13 • Salsa Rueda: Celebrating Love
February 13-18 • Tango: More Than a Dance
February 25-27 • Rise Up Singing
February 25-27 • Soul Motion™: Alone, Together
February 27-March 4 • Soul Motion™: Begin Again
March 13-18 • Spiritweaves™ Emerge
March 18-20 • Develop Your Inner Rhythm
March 25-27 • The Sound of Yum!
April 1-3 • Soul Motion™: Body Prayer
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
January 9-14 • Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
January 16-21 • Mosaic Art
January 23-28 • Awakening the Voice of Creativity
February 20-25 • Cinema Alchemy
February 20-25 • Awakening Creativity and Inspiration
February 27-March 4 • Filmmaking Intensive
March 6-11 • Painting from the Source
March 11-13 • Opening Doors to the Creative Flow
March 13-18 • Painting Improvisations
March 18-20 • Exploring Creativity
April 1-3 • With the Grain: Nonviolent Woodturning
April 3-8 • Painting the Outer and Inner Landscape
April 10-15 • Exploring Encaustic
April 10-15 • Imagining the Feminine in Film
April 29-May 1 • The Passion of Painting
May 1-6 • Awakening the Creative: Painting
May 6-8 • Photographing the Seasons of Big Sur
May 8-15 • The Artplane Painting Workshop
May 15-20 • A Bottle of Ink, A Wooden Pen and Thou
May 20-22 • Anatomy ABCs: Figure Drawing
May 22-27 • Art as a Spiritual Path
May 29-June 3 • Papermaking
June 5-10 • Plein Air Painting in Big Sur
June 19-24 • The Moving Archetypal Image
June 24-26 • Releasing the Wildness Inside Us
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Creative Expression / Theater
January 2-7 • Sharing Your Life Story
January 21-23 • Creating Natural Perfume
January 23-28 • Acting 101
February 18-20 • Practical Gladness
April 1-3 • Improv Inspiration
April 15-17 • Ignite the Creative Genius Within
April 29-May 1 • Everyday Spontaneity
May 6-8 • Free Fall! Living Life as Play
June 17-19 • Improv: Expanding Yourself with Laughter
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THE BODY
Massage
January 7-9 • Massage for Couples
January 9-14 • The Healing Art of Deep Bodywork®
January 14-21 • Advanced Bodywork: Touching the Core
January 21-23 • Weekend Esalen® Massage Intensive
February 11-13 • Esalen® Massage for Couples
March 27-April 1 • Esalen® Massage with Yoga
April 3-8 • The Healing Art of Deep Bodywork®
April 8-10 • An Esalen® Massage Retreat for Couples
May 15-20 • The Art of Essential Touch
May 20-22 • Current Trends in Esalen® Massage
June 10-12 • Weekend Massage Intensive
June 17-19 • Massage Retreat for Couples
Somatic Practices / Movement / Sports
January 7-9 • T’ai Chi: The Power of Softness
January 14-16 • Spinal Awareness (with Humor)
January 23-28 • Acupressure for Anyone
February 6-11 • Trauma, Attachment, Dissociation
February 6-11 • Rolf Structural Integration
February 11-13 • Feldenkrais® Spinal Awareness
March 20-25 • Ageless Vitality
March 27-April 1 • Attachment, Attunement, Sexuality
March 27-April 1 • Introduction to CFR®
April 1-3 • Esalen Tai Ji
April 3-8 • Rosen Method Movement
April 8-10 • ChiRunning®
April 15-17 • Traditional Taiji (Tai Chi) and Qigong
April 17-22 • Traditional Taiji (Tai Chi) and Qigong
April 24-29 • Gyrokinesis®
May 8-13 • Zero Balancing II
May 8-15 • CFR® and the Feldenkrais Method®
May 15-20 • The Embodied, Systemic Group
May 22-27 • The Upledger Institute’s CranioSacral I
June 3-5 • Balance: Your Body’s Re-set Button
June 17-19 • Spinal Awareness (with Humor)
June 24-26 • Hanna Somatics
June 24-26 • Getting Unblocked
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PSYCHOLOGY & RELATIONSHIP
Psychological / Transpersonal Process
January 2-7 • The I in the Storm
January 2-7 • Awakening the Heart
January 7-9 • Designing the Life We Want
January 9-14 • Radical Aliveness: Core Energetics
January 14-16 • Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice
January 16-21 • A New Beginning: Courage and Heart
January 16-21 • Trauma, Memory, and Restoration
January 28-30 • Intro. to Gestalt Awareness Practice
January 21-23 • The Body Keeps the Score
January 23-28 • How the Body Releases Trauma
January 23-28 • Living Beyond Self-Limiting Behavior
January 28-30 • Body Centered Awareness
February 4-6 • A Tender Invitation
February 6-11 • Finding Your Deepest Purpose
February 13-18 • Career Transition
February 18-20 • Relationships: The Courage to Begin
February 27-March 4 • Not For the Feint of Heart
March 4-6 • Arrive Already Loved
March 6-11 • The Art of Intelligent Risk Taking
March 11-13 • Gestalt Practice: Exploring Emotion
March 13-18 • Simplicity of Being Present: Gestalt
March 18-20 • Intro. to Gestalt Awareness Practice
March 20-25 • Reclaiming Your Authentic Self
March 27-April 1 • The MAX
April 1-3 • Self-Justification to Self-Actualization
April 3-8 • Gestalt Awareness Practice
April 10-15 • Stronger at the Broken Places
April 10-15 • Abandonment to Healing
April 15-17 • Born to be Good
April 17-22 • Self-Acceptance: The Heart of Healing
April 22-24 • The One Thing Holding You Back
April 29-May 1 • What’s Next? Reviewing Our Lives
May 1-6 • Get Clear, Stay Clear: Transitions
May 22-27 • The Gifts of Grief
May 27-29 • Forgiveness and Intimacy
May 29-June 3 • Liberating Your Essential Self
May 29-June 3 • Gestalt Awareness Practice
June 3-5 • The Undervalued Self:
June 5-10 • Gestalt Practice and CFR®
June 10-12 • Daring to Trust
June 10-12 • Living the Spirit of Love
June 10-12 • Sweet Mischief
June 19-24 • Choosing Aliveness and Intimacy
June 24-26 • What Now? How to Survive Change
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
April 10-15 • Afro-Cuban Dance, Music and Tantra Yoga
April 22-24 • Freeing Your Voice through Gospel
April 24-29 • The Power of Singing through Sorrow
April 29-May 1 • 5Rhythms®: Sweat Your Prayers
May 1-6 • Heart of the Song: Songwriting
May 6-8 • Mother’s Day Yoga and Drumming
May 8-13 • Soul Motion™: From Alone to All One
May 20-22 • Biodanza® Vital Development
May 29-June 3 • Moving Meditation Practice
June 5-10 • Luminous Being: The Radiance Sutras
June 19-24 • Soul Motion™: Sanctuary
June 24-26 • Song of the Drum, Spirit of Dance
April 8-10 • Raising Happiness
April 8-10 • Mother-Daughter Relationships
April 17-22 • Tantra: The Art of Conscious Loving
April 29-May 1 • Exploring Male Friendships
May 13-15 • An Insider’s Guide to Relationship
May 15-20 • Psychobiological Approach: Couple Therapy®
May 27-29 • Couples’ Communication Retreat
June 3-5 • The Shared Heart Retreat
June 5-10 • More Than a Communication Workshop
June 5-10 • Holistic Sexuality: A New Integral Approach
June 17-19 • Building Collaborative Relationships
June 17-19 • Fathers and Sons: Celebrating Father’s Day
June 17-19 • Women in Transition: Your Authentic Self
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NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
NEUROSCIENCE /
PARAPSYCHOLOGY
/
June 10-12 • Neuroscience: Mind, Brain, Consciousness
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SOCIAL
/ POLITICAL ISSUES
March 4-6 • Human Rights Activism
March 4-6 • Creative Process and Social Change
Relationship / Sexuality / Gender
January 14-16 • Celebrating Womanhood
February 4-6 • The Second Half of Life
February 6-11 • Heart and Libido: For Couples
February 11-13 • Finding True Love
February 11-13 • Love, Sex and Intimacy
February 13-18 • Develop Your Romantic Intelligence
February 20-25 • The Return of Desire
February 25-27 • Financial Planning for Women
March 4-6 • Getting the Love You Want: For Couples
March 6-11 • I-You-Us: Pleasure, Intimacy, Connection
March 6-11 • Riding the Change: Perimenopausal Years
March 13-18 • The Intimate Couple: (IBP)
April 1-3 • Gay Men Thriving!
April 3-8 • The Alchemy of Gender
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PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
TRAINING
/
January 16-21 • A Holistic Approach to Vision Care
February 13-March 13 • 28-Day Massage Certification
February 18-20 • Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy
March 25-27 • Everyday Leadership
March 27-April 1 • Retreat For and By Women Physicians
April 10-15 • Transforming Trauma with EMDR
April 24-29 • The Heart of Healing: For Clinicians
April 24-29 • Chinese Pulse Diagnosis
May 13-15 • Leadership Mastery
May 13-20 • Permaculture Teacher Training
May 29-June 3 • The Language of the Body: Anatomy 1
Continued on next page
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PHILOSOPHICAL AND
SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
February 25-27 • Limitless Mind and End of Suffering
March 25-27 • The Occult in America: Arcane History
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NATURE / ECOLOGY
SUSTAINABILITY
/
February 13-18 • Seduced by Earth
April 15-17 • Climate Change / Cultural Metamorphosis
April 17-22 • Training for Transition
April 22-24 • Manifesting Personal Sustainability
April 24-29 • Big Sur Wilderness Experience
May 6-8 • Simply Wild: Experiencing Nature
May 15-20 • Walk on the Wild Side
May 22-27 • Experiencing the Esalen Farm and Garden
June 3-5 • Sustaining Earth, Sustaining Soul
June 5-10 • Urban Permaculture Design
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SPIRITUALITY
Contemplative / Spiritual Studies
January 2-7 • Zen and Psychotherapy
January 14-16 • Perfectly Human: Your Nature as Nature
January 21-23 • Awakening Joy
January 30-February 6 • Tibetan Buddhist Meditation
February 13-18 • Bridge Back Home: Buddhist Practices
February 18-20 • Applied Zen
February 20-25 • Mindful Self-Compassion
March 6-11 • The Heart of Awakening
March 18-20 • The Samurai Game®
March 25-27 • MythBody at Play in the Year of the Hare
March 25-27 • The Art and Science of Mindfulness
April 1-3 • Being Present For Your Life
April 8-10 • Finding and Following an Authentic Life
April 15-17 • Experiencing Your Spiritual Self
April 17-22 • From Fixation to Freedom: The Enneagram
April 17-24 • Mahamudra Meditation
April 29-May 1 • Tibetan Sound Healing
May 1-6 • Taoist Alchemy: Love, Sex and Spirituality
May 8-13 • The Monroe Institute’s Gateway Voyage
May 8-13 • Speaking the Soul
May 8-13 • Mind Games: Buddhist Meditation
May 13-15 • Tibetan Dream Wisdom
May 27-29 • Mind, Mood and Happiness
June 3-5 • Enjoying Meditation: Returning to Ease
June 24-26 • Realization Process
Yoga
January 2-7 • Doorway in Time: Yoga
February 4-6 • Yoga for the “Yogically Challenged”
February 6-11 • The Heart of Vitality and Awareness
February 20-25 • The Art of Yoga
March 4-6 • Revealing the Wisdom Within
March 11-13 • Sacred Evolution: Yoga and Meditation
March 18-20 • Yoga Ecstasy Spring Detox
March 20-25 • Gravity and Grace
April 8-10 • Spring Renewal and the Practices of Yoga
April 22-24 • Yoga and Creative Writing
May 1-6 • Yoga and the Act of Creation
May 8-13 • Hatha and Raja Yoga Practicum
May 13-15 • Anusara Yoga Journey through the Elements
May 15-20 • The Purposeful Evolution of Consciousness
June 3-5 • The Yoga of Regeneration
June 5-10 • Advanced Yoga Practice for Perfect Beginners
June 12-17 • The Way of Love: Yoga and Gratitude
December 31-Jan 2 • Axé! New Year’s Ritual Retreat
Myth / Ritual / Shamanism
February 6-11 • Dreamgates: Multidimensional Self
February 20-25 • The Way of the Shaman
March 25-27 • Finding Our Mythic Path
March 25-27 • MythBody at Play in the Year of the Hare
March 27-April 1 • A Mythological Toolbox
April 3-8 • Shamanic Cosmology: Visionseeker Level 3
April 24-29 • Shamanic Healing and Brazilian Spiritism
May 20-22 • The Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of Shamanism
June 19-24 • Spiritwalker Teachings: Level 1
R
/
April 8-10 • Raising Happiness
April 8-10 • The Magical Child
April 8-10 • Thriving in Mother-Daughter Relationships
April 17-22 • Wondrous Stories
April 22-24 • The Magical Family
April 24-29 • Exploring Your Ocean Connections
May 6-8 • Mother’s Day Family Workshop
May 27-29 • Family Mindfulness Retreat
June 17-19 • A Celebration of Family
June 17-19 • Fathers and Sons: Celebrating Father’s Day
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ECONOMICS
LEADERSHIP
/ BUSINESS /
February 25-27 • Financial Planning for Women
March 18-20 • Succeeding With Your Soul Intact
April 29-May 1 • The Money Vision Quest
May 6-8 • How Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow
June 10-12 • Spirituality in Business
June 24-26 • Crafting Careers that Truly Fit
R
HEALTH
/ HEALING
Dec 31-Jan 2 • New Year’s Cleanse for the Body and Mind
January 2-7 • New Year’s Cleanse for the Body and Mind
January 7-9 • Mindfulness and Heartfulness
January 7-9 • The Practice of Happiness and Health
January 9-14 • From Recovery to Resilience to Thriving
January 14-16 • The Mind/Body Connection
February 4-6 • Deep Healing: Mind/Body Medicine
February 13-18 • Trauma First Aide™
February 18-20 • Qigong and Inner Alchemy
March 6-11 • Chakras Actually
March 11-13 • Spiritual Massage and Shaman Ways
March 11-13 • Healing Ourselves, Healing Our World
March 13-18 • Spiritual Massage: Lightbody Infusion
March 13-18 • Free Your Breath, Free Your Life
March 18-20 • Love Yourself - For Everyone Else’s Sake
March 20-25 • Quick Meals with Whole Foods
March 25-27 • Improvisational Cooking
April 15-17 • The Art of Healthy Aging
April 15-17 • The Esalen Cookbook
April 29-May 1 • The Money Vision Quest
May 20-22 • Mindfulness in Deep Relationship
May 20-22 • Living Deeply: Transformation
May 20-27 • Wisdom Healing Qigong™
May 29-June 3 • Land of Milk and Honey: Farmstead Arts
June 12-17 • Raw Foods and A Raw Foods Diet
June 19-24 • Qigong Empowerment
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SUNNIE KAUFMANN-PAULMAN
CHILDREN / FAMILIES
EDUCATION
INTEGRAL PRACTICES
January 14-17 • Experiencing Esalen
March 4-6 • Experiencing Esalen
March 11-13 • Friends of Esalen Reunion
April 22-24 • Experiencing Esalen
May 6-8 • Power of Practice: Embodiment of Esalen
6
S
spotlight on conscious business
Social Venture Network Workshop Series
ore than ever, leaders across many sectors are embracing a new,
integrated vision for enacting change in the world. These leaders
recognize that the type of action required of humans right now is holistic
in the truest sense of the word: concerned with complete systems rather
than with separate parts. This approach is abundantly present among the
offerings of Esalen’s wide-ranging teachers, and this season we’re proud to
highlight those who address one aspect of this larger movement—creating
a new paradigm for business.
M
For the first time, Esalen has partnered with Social Venture Network
(SVN) to offer a series on conscious business practices, designed to help
business professionals lead with passion, insight and authenticity. These
five seminars, scheduled between March and November, 2011, are led by
some of the most innovative business entrepreneurs and leaders today.
Since 1987, San Francisco-based SVN has transformed the way the world
does business by connecting, supporting, and inspiring the world’s foremost social entrepreneurs. SVN members believe in a new bottom line for
business: one that values healthy communities and the human spirit as
well as high returns. Through its many programs, SVN facilitates collaborations and new ventures that promote social, environmental, and economic justice. We are delighted to team up with SVN’s innovative vision
for conscious business.
March 18–20
Cheri Huber
& friends
Succeeding With Your Soul Intact:
Lessons from Sustainable Business Mavericks
Led by Margot Fraser, founder of Birkenstock USA; Mike Hannigan, president and cofounder of Give Something Back; Jeff Mendelsohn, founder
of New Leaf Paper; and Deb Nelson, executive director of Social Venture
Network. For a full description, see page 42.
June 10–12
Spirituality in Business:
Growing Your Organization, Growing Yourself
Led by Cheri Huber, author and founder of Palo Alto Zen Center, Zen
Monastery Peace Center, and Living Compassion; and Marc Lesser, author,
Zen teacher and CEO of ZBA Associates, an executive coaching and consulting company. For a full description, see page 82.
August 14–19
How to Grow a Thriving Social Enterprise:
Best Practices from Social Venture Network Members
A
part from the SVN series, this season Esalen continues its focus on
conscious business with the following seminars. Complete descriptions for the programs below appear in chronological order throughout
the catalog.
February 18–20
Applied Zen: Creating the World Around Us, led by Ji Hyang Padma and
Rizwan Virk.
March 25–27
Led by Mark Albion, author, professor and social entrepreneur; Margot
Fraser, founder of Birkenstock USA; Lisa Lorimer, former president and
owner of Vermont Bread Company; Kevin Lynch, president of Rebuild
Resources Inc.; and Mal Warwick, author, entrepreneur, and editor of the
Social Venture Network book series. For a full description, see www.esalen.org.
Everyday Leadership, led by Athena Katsaros.
October 7–9
How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, led by Chip Conley
April 17–22
Get Clear, Stay Clear: Engaging Transitions with Wisdom and Inspiration,
led by Sheila Ramsey and Gordon Watanabe.
May 6–8
Courageous Conversations about Diversity
Led by Lee Mun Wah, diversity trainer, therapist, and executive director of
StirFry Seminars & Consulting. For a full description, see www.esalen.org.
November 11–13
Enlightened Leadership in Challenging Times
Led by Greg Steltenpohl, founder of Odwalla, Inc.; Myra Goodman,
cofounder of Earthbound Farm; and Deborah Schoenbaum, senior director
of programs and development for Social Venture Network.
and Vanda Marlow.
June 17–19
Building Collaborative Relationships through Five Essential Skills, led by
Jim Tamm.
June 26–July 1
Leadership for Emergent Executives and Entrepreneurs, led by James
Wheal.
7
Q
seminar spotlight
A Closer Look
I
n our efforts to expand our programming in new directions,
we continue to present leaders whose names may not be as familiar
to you as others in the Catalog. In this section we highlight a few
of these offerings by providing a bit more information than you’ll find
in the Seminars section.
ANDREA SCHER
SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy)
“Do I start with being the wake-up fairy
in kindergarten?” This is SARK’s reply
when asked to describe her life. SARK
is a transformative teacher and leader,
and an artist and author who has written sixteen best-selling books and created hundreds of inspirational products.
She offers guidance for people in their
process of living more powerfully and
authentically, and being more creative
on a daily basis. The publication of
her 1997 book, Succulent Wild Woman,
inspired women to start Succulent
Wild Women groups around the world, and men joined in when she profiled succulent wild men in her book The Bodacious Book of Succulence. Susan
is exuberant, playful, and has wisdom to share. Her art, inseparable from
her teaching, is kaleidoscopic, inviting, and empowering. Her work is
widely used by colleges and universities as required reading and course
material, and she has contributed articles, columns, and interviews in
magazines and periodicals including Seventeen, USA Today, The Washington
Post, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Daily News, and the Chicago Tribune,
among many others.
In Susan’s words, “After more than twenty years of facilitating groups, I’m
able to offer innovative practices that fit in beautifully with our actual
lives, that cause beneficial change and transformation. Additionally, each
group has within it what each person in that group needs to be supported
in creating new systems for their lives. We are all kindred spirits and
human geniuses. I believe in honoring all the parts of ourselves, not just
the fun, easy ones. I know that we are all splendidly imperfect, and I like
to empower people to give themselves permission to be that way and then
witness the resulting creative growth and change.”
cially compassion, awe, love, and beauty)
and how do emotions shape all kinds of
human judgments? Second, what is the
nature of power, and how does it affect
our thought, feeling, and behavior?
After receiving his PhD from Stanford
in social psychology, and finishing his
post-doc at UCSF with Paul Ekman,
Dacher took his first academic job at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, and
then returned to U.C. Berkeley’s psychology department in 1996, where he is
now a full professor. There he continues his research on emotion and
power.
Dacher is a founder and faculty director of the Greater Good Science
Center (GGSC; www.greatergoodscience.org). Based at U.C. Berkeley, GGSC
studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of wellbeing, and
teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.
Dacher also serves as executive editor of Greater Good magazine. He is the
author of the best-selling book Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful
Life, and most recently, The Compassionate Instinct (WW Norton, 2010). He
has written more than 100 scientific papers and two textbooks, Social
Psychology and Understanding Emotions. His research has been covered by
international media, and he has been awarded numerous national prizes
and grants. Dacher lives in Berkeley with his wife and their two daughters.
Dacher’s Esalen workshop will explore the ways that evolutionary biology,
neuroscience, and positive psychology can help cultivate and sustain positive emotions in everyday life.
See Born To Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, April 15-17.
Bill McKibben and David Abram
During her Esalen workshop, SARK will explore ways to find the glad
parts in all of your feelings, and feel glad more often, and live in the messy,
marvelous middle—not the extremes. Wake up your intuitive, wise self
and see how much it can do for you in your life.
See Practical Gladness - Glad No Matter What: Has Happened, Will
Happen, Might Happen, February 18-20.
Dacher Keltner
Dacher Keltner’s research focuses on two time-honored questions. First,
what are the biological and evolutionary origins of human emotion (espe-
8
In this time of rapid environmental and climatic change, leaders from
many different areas of expertise and perspectives are joining forces to
pioneer a new type of activism, one that facilitates the transformation of
human behavior by reconnecting human values with the natural world.
Bill McKibben and David Abram are two such leaders, whose work inte-
grates ecology, philosophy, science, community, political activism, and
the arts.
David Abram is a cultural ecologist, philosopher, performance artist, and
founder of the Alliance for Wild Ethics, a consortium of individuals and
organizations working to ease the devastation of the animate earth
through a transformation of culture. He wrote the acclaimed book, The
Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World.
“This book,” wrote Gary Snyder, “lights up the landscape of language, flesh,
mind, history, mapping us back into the world.” An accomplished storyteller and sleight-of-hand magician who has lived and traded magic with
indigenous sorcerers in Indonesia, Nepal, and the Americas, he lectures
and teaches widely on several continents.
Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature, first published in 1989, was the first
book for a general audience on climate change, and is now a cornerstone
of the environmental movement. His many subsequent books address
issues from modern media to human population, from long-distance solo
hiking and the dangers of genetic engineering to local economies and
alternative energies. He also helped organize large-scale movements to
combat climate change, most recently 350.org, which coordinated what
CNN called “the most widespread day of political activity in the planet’s
history,” with 5200 demonstrations in 181 countries.
Esalen is delighted to welcome Bill McKibben and David Abram to Esalen
for a workshop that synthesizes many perspectives of our climate crisis—
scientific, political, cultural, personal—and cultivates a new language of
change.
See Climate Change and Cultural Metamorphosis, April 15-17.
Stan Tatkin
Stan Tatkin writes: “I am a clinician,
researcher, teacher, and the developer
of A Psychobiological Approach to
Couples Therapy®. In my work with
couples, I’ve noticed that partners’ theories almost always are pro-self and not
pro-relationship. One partner says, ‘We
always argue because he doesn’t like the
same things I like.’ Another says, ‘She
only thinks of herself; no wonder I feel
hurt.’ The focus is on the individual
coming up with the theory. One of the
most important discoveries a couple
can make is that it is possible to shift to a pro-relationship stance. To do
this, they must be willing to throw out the old theories.
“For many years, my specialty as a psychotherapist was working with individuals suffering from personality disorders. I was interested in the early
prevention of such disorders. Then my practice began to include more
adult couples and I found myself wanting to identify ways to prevent their
problems, earlier rather than later.
“Around this time, one of the great shocks of my life came to pass. My first
wife and I divorced. The change in our relationship seemed sudden and
deeply disturbing. I could not stop thinking about what had happened
that led to such abject failure. I felt an intense need to know why. Although
intellectually I understood the break in our marriage, emotionally I couldn’t
make enough sense of it to justify the loss and grief I felt. Only much later
would I begin to understand that the theories I held in my relationship
were overly pro-self.
“Ultimately, I came up with several key areas of research I believe can
point toward the difference between success and failure in relationships.
I’m not speaking of research I conducted myself; these are interdisciplinary fields of study that have witnessed enormous leaps forward in the
past few decades, including neuroscience, infant attachment, arousal regulation, and therapeutic enactment applied to adult primary attachment
relationships. These interdisciplinary threads are synthesized to create
A Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy.”
In May, Stan Tatkin will offer two workshops that synthesize his work
with couples into two different formats, one designed for couples themselves, and one for helping professionals who work with couples.
See An Insider’s Guide to Your Partner and Relationship, May 13-15 and
A Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy®, May 15-20.
Mingtong Gu
Master Mingtong Gu is the creator of
the Wisdom Healing Qigong™ healing
program and the founder of the
Wisdom Healing Foundation and the
Chi Center at the Institute of Noetic
Sciences in Petaluma, California.
Master Gu grew up in Hangzhou,
China. After college he came to the
US and completed advanced degrees
in math and art, while also studying
tai chi, yoga, and Buddhist meditation.
In 1997 he returned to China for
qigong trainings under Dr. Pang Ming,
a qigong grandmaster trained in western medicine and traditional
Chinese medicine. He trained with Dr. Pang at the world’s largest medicine-less hospital, known as Zhineng Qigong Training and Recovery
Center, near Beijing. While training there, he observed thousands of cases
of chronic and so-called incurable diseases being healed. Witnessing these
profound healing experiences inspired his dedication to the teaching and
practice of qigong healing. Through this practice, he recovered from his
own chronic conditions of asthma, scoliosis, back pain, and kidney weakness. In teaching and working with his students he found his life passion,
purpose, and fulfillment in the union of spiritual practice and applied
healing wisdom.
Since his return to the US, Master Gu has trained and helped thousands of
students through the Wisdom Healing Qigong program, which emphasizes
activating the power of inner self-healing, which in turn facilitates the
release of chronic illness, while improving health and wellbeing. Deep
awakening and transformation typically arise in this process of healing.
He lives and teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Linling,
who is also a healer, and their two-and-a-half-year-old son whom they call
their grandmaster.
See Wisdom Healing Qigong™, May 20-27.
9
family spotlight
S
C
elebrate family relationships at Esalen this season by joining
one of our numerous programs designed for parents, children, and
friends. Centered in principles of connectedness, awareness, discovery, and creativity, Esalen family programs offer ways for children and
parents to grow together, as well as opportunities for children to express
who they are apart, as individuals. Full descriptions of each workshop can
be found in chronological order throughout the catalog.
Magic
Exploring Your Ocean Connections. Join leaders from Camp SEA
Lab, a marine science education center based in Monterey Bay, for a
family exploration of the ocean’s habitats, from rocky shores to the
deep sea. Led by Amity Wood and Hannah Campbell. April 24-29.
Exploration
Mother’s Day Family Workshop. Esalen is the perfect place for fami-
lies of all kinds to celebrate Mother’s Day. Join a community of families for a weekend of creative expression, celebration, connection, and
play. The workshop also includes a time for children-only programming, when adults can enjoy Esalen on their own. Led by Joanna
Claassen and Stephen Mercurio. May 6-8.
Thriving in Mother-Daughter Relationships. Creating community,
support, and a positive model for close and connected mother-daughter relationships, and having fun along the way! Led by Renée
Schultz. April 8-10.
Raising Happiness: Simple Ways to Raise Joyful Kids and
Happier Families. Christine Carter directs the Greater Good
Celebrating the Feminine: Mother’s Day Yoga and Drumming
Retreat. Through yoga, drumming, chanting, dance, and meditation,
this workshop creates a special community of women during Mother’s
Day weekend. Open to women ages 10 and up, it is a special opportunity for mothers and daughters to go on a musical journey and practice
yoga together. Led by Chandra Easton and Marla Leigh. May 6-8.
Science Center’s parenting program, and in this workshop dedicated
to practicing skills that create happy, healthy families, she helps make
joy and passion a daily staple of family relationships. April 8-10.
Celebration
The Magical Child. This kids-only workshop led by Ivy Mayer is an
Family Mindfulness Retreat. This retreat offers time to unplug from the
busyness of life and find meaningful reconnection within and without.
Meeting together and separately, adults and children will explore how
to be more present, open, kind, and aware. Led by Spirit Rock faculty
James Baraz and Heather Sundberg, and Ivy Mayer. May 27-29.
opportunity for children to explore the magic of Esalen, including art
making, time in the garden and in Gazebo School Park, yoga, dharma
games, and more! Open to children of parents who are attending any
concurrent Esalen workshop, particularly Raising Happiness and An
Esalen® Massage Retreat for Couples. April 8-10.
Wondrous Stories: Writing for Children with Children. Have
you always wanted to write a children’s story, or spend time telling
stories together with your child? Join former Disney animator Dave
Zaboski and writing teacher Tesa Conlin to write, draw, collage, paint,
and craft your way to a children’s book all your own! April 17-22.
Fathers and Sons: Celebrating Father’s Day in the Tradition
of the Old Ways. Participants will walk together in wild nature,
Wonder
The Magical Family. Spring is the perfect time to explore, create, and
A Celebration of Family. Honor and celebrate your family relation-
ships through music, movement, and silence, storytelling, writing,
and imaginative family portraits. Explore the language of love in
your family during this special Father’s Day weekend workshop. Led
by Sunnie Kaufmann-Paulman. June 17-19.
AMELIA MITCHELL
play as a family at Esalen. The Magical Family incorporates art making, family yoga, night hikes, and exploring in nature, for a beautiful
weekend of creativity and connection. Led by Ivy Mayer. April 22-24.
exploring the early summer landscapes of Big Sur with longtime
Esalen leader Steven Harper, his father Kenneth, and his two sons,
Kai (19) and Kes (16). What better way for fathers and sons to connect with each other for Father’s Day? June 17-19.
10
esalen seminars
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
R
Weekend of December 31–
January 2
Axé! New Year’s Ritual Retreat
Micheline Berry
Begin the new year with a deep immersion into
your wild creativity, power, and the rhythm of
Axé (pronounced ahshay), the Yoruba word for
life force. Movement, rhythm, and music have
been used by cultures throughout the world for
millennia to induce healing and ecstatic states of
being or Axé. The New Year holiday is a powerful ritual time that offers the opportunity to set
in motion our creative seeds of intention for the
upcoming year. Come experience a healing
weekend of celebration and silence, rejuvenation and empowerment, purification and fun,
stillness and ecstatic movement, and art in
many forms as we bring in this new year together and prepare our mind, body, and heart for a
new creative cycle. Join Micheline Berry, musical ensemble Shaman’s Dream, and friends for
an unforgettable ritual retreat dedicated to culti-
vating Axé and empowering the artist within.
Most yoga and all dance sessions will be accompanied by DJ and Shaman’s Dream’s healing
world beat grooves.
This Axé! New Year’s Ritual Retreat will include,
among other events:
• Daily Liquid Asana vinyasa flow yoga and
somatic dance with Micheline Berry
• A New Year’s World Ritual Concert with Craig
Kohland, Micheline Berry, DJ Drez and
Shaman’s Dream
• New Year’s Ritual and Meditation
• Hot springs gong meditations and music
serenades
• Art-making immersions with Domonic Dean
Breaux
• Silent meditations and spontaneous relaxation
This retreat is designed so that you will return
rejuvenated, inspired, and deeply connected to
your creativity.
Please note: There will be multiple New Year’s Eve
celebrations at Esalen, open to all.
A Clean Slate: A New Year’s Cleanse
for the Body and Mind
Liam McDermott
Begin the New Year by considering what you want
to invite into your life and planting those seeds of
intention. Let go of old patterns, habits, addictions,
and beliefs as you release toxins in a supportive
community. Eat simple, delicious foods that purify
and nourish the body, allowing space for healing.
Enjoy daily meditation, restorative yoga, and
mindfulness practices, including a sweat lodge
(weather permitting) followed by a day in silence.
There will be ample space and time for reflection
during sitting and moving meditation practices
and occasional dharma talks. All are welcome to
participate in the hands-on preparation of meals,
juices, and smoothies. A juice bar stocked with
fruits, vegetables, and wheatgrass will be available
throughout the day. Some participants may choose
to do a juice or water fast during our time together.
Cleanse meals will draw from living foods,
Ayurvedic, and macrobiotic traditions. Morning
meals include soaked grains, assorted fruits and
See pages 110-111 for reservations, fees, accommodations, scholarship information, and discounts.
11
green smoothies, and miso. Lunch will be
Ayurvedic-inspired kitcharee, a spiced blend of
rice and dahl. The evening meal is macrobiotic
inspired, and features seasonal vegetables, whole
grains, and seaweeds.
Specific examples of how Zen and psychotherapy work in concert to help transform trauma
will be drawn from the instructor’s work with
returning veterans and their families in the
Coming Home Project.
Evenings include talks around the fire on nutrition, lifestyle, health, and cleansing techniques.
A seaweed spa experience will both cleanse and
rejuvenate. Morning harvest and meditation in
the garden will offer us time to engage with the
earth, learn a bit about gardening and permaculture, and harvest some of the vegetables for the
evening meal.
CE credit for psychologists; see page 113.
CE credit for MFTs and LCSWs; see page 113.
Please note: A Clean Slate is being offered as a
seven-day workshop for those who wish to
come Dec. 31-Jan. 7. Participants may also register for five days, Jan. 2-7, or two days, Dec.
31–Jan. 2. For more information, visit
www.esalen.org or call the Esalen office.
Week of January 2–7
Zen and Psychotherapy:
Partners in Integration
Joseph Bobrow
Zen and psychotherapy appear to be strange bedfellows. One path exhorts us to forget the self
while the other helps us create a working sense
of self. One provides a safe place to explore our
emotions, the other encourages us to let them go.
One cultivates integration of the person, the
other encourages transcending the veil of the
personal into our true nature. One sees attachment as a human need, the other as a prime
cause of suffering. In reality the principles and
practices of Zen and psychotherapy are not
opposed; they complement and enrich one
another. This workshop explores how our capacity to live full, wise, and compassionate lives is
enhanced by an integrative model in which spiritual and emotional growth “interare.” How? Zen
helps us engage each moment of our lives with
maximum aliveness, and experience for ourselves our essential nature, beyond success and
failure. Personal and interpersonal work help us
become whole selves. It takes a differentiated,
integrated person to fully embody our no-self
nature. As we realize the empty, multi-centered
nature of ourselves and all beings, we and our
unique qualities are brought to life and fruition.
Through presentations, meditation practice (sitting, walking and occasional mindful eating),
experiential exercises, and discussion, this material will come to life as we make it our own.
12
A Doorway in Time:
Yoga as a Journey of Being
Thomas Michael Fortel
In many ways, our whole life is a series of doorways and passages into new or forgotten ways of
being. Now again, we stand on the precipice of a
new year, observing and noticing a new way of
life and being, emerging before our eyes and
through our very own selves and intentions.
Over time, the practices of yoga can create a softening of habits and patterns, a clarifying of
mind, and a gradual opening of the spiritual
lotuses (chakras). All of this leads to an expanded field of awareness beyond our personal ego,
and into a wellspring of life-force (energy) and
our natural place in the ocean of consciousness.
One of the most profound environments for
retreat is simply being in nature. Here on the cliffside, overlooking the great expanse of the Pacific
Ocean, we’ll begin each morning with meditation
and pranayama (conscious breathing) and continuing after breakfast with journal writing and an
active morning yoga practice. In the afternoons,
we’ll meet for the secret Esalen spiritual practice
of lawn-lying, gathering at various locations on
the Esalen property as we study the energy of
Mother Earth and Father Sun. We’ll conclude our
days with restorative yoga and various topics of
interest. All levels of yoga practice are welcome;
please have at least three months of recent yoga
experience. Please bring a yoga mat and a journal.
CE credit for bodyworkers; see page 113.
CE credit for nurses; see page 113.
Sharing Your Life Story:
From the Page to the Stage
Ann Randolph
As we write, we are both describing and deciding
the direction that our life is taking.
—Julia Cameron
Everything in your life, from the mundane to
the extraordinary, is a story waiting to be told.
This workshop is an invitation to discover your
own unique and powerful story. Michel de
Montaigne, the great personal essayist, said,
“Every man has within himself the entire
human condition.” The intention of this work-
shop is for you to delve deep into your own personal narrative. Writing from your deepest
source, gain insight and self-understanding that
can bring peace and healing. You will then make
your words leap from the page to the stage, sharing them orally to uncover the power of story to
transform your life and your listeners.
Through improvisation, writing exercises, and
group discussion, you will find your authentic
voice, along with an honest, organic way to
express your truth. Ann Randolph creates a supportive, fun, and dynamic space to create. All
levels are welcome. This is a workshop for those
seeking to explore personal essay, memoir, solo
performance, or the sacred practice of journaling. Topics include:
• Writing exercises to stimulate memory
• Learning to structure the narrative in a
compelling way
• Discovering ways to create spontaneously
• Overcoming performance anxiety
• Tools to release yourself from the inner critic
• Transforming your ideas/stories into
performance
The I in the Storm: Bringing Self
Leadership to Everyday Life
Richard Schwartz
Mystical traditions agree that beneath our protective layers lies a Self, an untarnished essence
from which flows healing, spiritual energy, and
wisdom. Most of us rarely live from that state
because, through life experiences, parts of us
have absorbed extreme emotions and beliefs
that not only obscure our Self but also govern
our daily lives. This workshop offers participants the opportunity to learn and experience
concrete ways to help those parts trust that it is
safe to remain in the calm, confident, and compassionate state of self leadership, not only during meditation but throughout the day, even in
the face of strong provocation.
Awakening the Heart
Joe Cavanaugh
The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man
while he lives.
—Albert Schweitzer
We are born with an abundance of creative energy,
vitality, and aliveness. Yet, simply by living in an
imperfect world, we have all experienced some
degree of wounding of the heart, causing us to
retract our love to protect ourselves against fur-
You can now register online at www.esalen.org. Workshops appear on the Web before the Catalog is printed.
ther hurt. We then develop strategies to survive
in a world of uncertainty and change. These
defense strategies, once essential for our survival,
now simply perpetuate our own suffering while
further alienating us from who we really are.
Through personal and interpersonal processes,
including Gestalt, psychodrama, meditation, and
other self-awareness tools, this workshop is
designed to assist participants in identifying and
working through their own self-imposed limitations and thus reclaim the true identity of their
authentic selves. This requires the courage to
awaken the heart from its slumber (from Latin,
courage cor means heart!) and embrace life to its
fullest, including the full range of our human
emotions. This, once again, opens us up to the
wellspring of joy and gratefulness (great-fullness)
that comes naturally from just being fully alive!
creates an increasing experience of gentleness,
kindness, and respect for oneself and others.”
The program offers guided practice in mindfulness meditation, body movement, breathing
practices, and heart opening, interspersed with
lecture and interactive discussion. While the
practices are especially helpful for people who
are experiencing emotional or physical concerns, the universality of the experience makes
this program valuable for all.
Prerequisite: be willing to abstain from alcohol
and nonprescription drugs for the duration of
the workshop. Recommended reading:
Cavanaugh, Who Am I, Really? How Our Wounds
Can Lead to Healing.
You have never been where you are today. You
have never been the age you are today, or had
the experience you have today. The river of life
flows and we find ourselves in places we have
never been before. At times, you must pause and
reflect: Have you created the life you want? Are
you going in the right direction? Are you who
you want to be?
A Clean Slate: A New Year’s Cleanse
for the Body and Mind
Liam McDermott
For full workshop description, see December 31January 2.
Weekend of January 7–9
Mindfulness and Heartfulness:
The Healing and Transformation of
Mind and Body
Mark Abramson & Fred Luskin
This program is designed to integrate the practice of mindful awareness with directed heartfulness to facilitate growth, healing, and change.
It is based on Fred Luskin’s research at Stanford
Medical School on the healing effects of forgiveness and heartfulness and Mark Abramson’s
work as the director of Stanford’s MindfulnessBased Stress Reduction Program.
The workshop introduces the practical application of techniques of mindfulness and heartfulness to transform emotional states and unleash
the great potential for deep healing of the body.
The goal is to learn new ways of relating to experience that allow greater opening, understanding, and the possibility of transformation. “Our
work,” write the leaders, “has shown us that this
Designing the Life We Want:
Self-Renewal in the New Year
Mark Nicolson & Gustavo Rabin
Rarely, however, do we allow ourselves the time
to stop and look at what is changing and what
will prepare us for the next phase. Drawing on
psychological principles and ancient wisdom
traditions to guide us, we will create a unique
environment in which peers can come together
for a rare opportunity of deep personal learning
and exploration, with the goal of renewing self,
and designing and creating the year and the life
we want.
You will develop a set of tools, practices, and
intentions as a foundation for the next year and
next stage of life. Together we will create a supportive community to make this experiential
workshop safe, enlivening, and nurturing.
an executive who wants to make sure your team
operates flawlessly when under the gun, or a
weekend warrior hoping to beat your buddies
on the golf course, this workshop is for you.
Beilock unpacks the science behind why some
people excel and others fail to perform well when
the stakes are high, in activities ranging from taking the SAT to pitching to a room full of clients.
Linking body and mind, Beilock provides counterintuitive revelations about intelligence and performance. She also gives practical advice about
ways not to choke in high-pressure situations, and
how to succeed brilliantly when it matters most.
Through interactive demonstrations, you can
come away with an arsenal of techniques that can
be used to reduce performance anxiety and turn
pressure to your advantage—whether you are
looking to raise a test score or lower a golf score.
Recommended reading: Beilock, Choke: What the
Secrets of the Brain Reveal about Getting it Right
when You Have To.
T’ai Chi: The Power of Softness
Benjamin Lo & Michael Jang
Join Master Ben Lo, senior disciple of the
Chinese t’ai chi master Cheng Man Ching, for a
weekend of t’ai chi practice. All levels are welcome, from beginners who would like to learn a
gentle and graceful exercise for health or stress
reduction, to more advanced students interested
in the sensing hands aspect of the art.
Participants will be shown a simplified form of
flowing movement that, when coordinated with
breathing, can help achieve a sense of inner calm.
The benefits of yoga and chi kung, such as balance, agility, and development of internal power,
are all elements contained within this ancient art.
How to Achieve Success under Stress
Sian Beilock
Sian Beilock, a leading researcher of the brain
science behind performance under stress,
explains why we choke under pressure, and
how we make the perfect golf swing, difficult
math calculation, or business presentation look
easy. Beilock gives a lively tutorial on what psychological and brain science says about how we
get to be the best, and she also details how and
why our performance sometimes goes awry
when there is pressure to succeed. Whether you
are a parent looking for ways to help your child,
Ben Lo’s teaching is hands on, safe, and nurturing. He is among the few who can demonstrate
the astonishing power born of relaxed softness,
yielding, and sensitivity. Honest, humorous,
demanding, and inspiring, a workshop with
Master Lo can be both unforgettable and life
changing. Michael Jang, his skilled senior student of more than three decades, will assist as
well as share rare vintage films and photos in a
question and answer session on Saturday night.
Recommended reading: Ching, Lo & Inn, Cheng
Tzu’s Thirteen Treatises on T’ai Chi Ch’uan; Ming,
Lo & Smith, Tai Chi Ch’uan Ta Wen: Questions and
Answers on Tai Chi Chuan; Lo, Inn, & Foe, The
Essence of Tai Chi Chuan: The Literary Tradition.
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HANNS BECKER
The Practice of Happiness and Health
Carole Pertofsky & Naomi Brown
The fascinating pursuit of happiness and vibrant
health is a timeless universal quest. The constant
buzzing of our hectic, complex, post-modern
world appears to take a toll on people’s happiness. Stress, time pressure, and overabundance
of choice deplete our energies and we often turn
to unhealthy habits and dysfunctional behaviors
to enliven us or help us relax. Yet, we know people who authentically thrive and flourish. What
awakens their emotional vibrancy and contentment? How do they sustain authentic positivity,
despite challenging life circumstances? Can you?
During this workshop we will explore and experience the quality of our emotional life, from
Western and Eastern cross-cultural perspectives.
Drawing upon the explosion of research from
cognitive neuroscience, biology, and positive
psychology, we will explore new and sometimes
surprising perspectives that underlie happiness
of the mind and health of the body. We will
explore questions, including the following: Can
all people experience strong positive emotions,
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or is this genetically determined? How does the
pleasure circuitry in the brain operate? How
does ecological sustainability interact with personal well being? The doorway to the heart can
be opened through ancient contemplative wisdom from cross-cultural traditions, which will
guide the practices we will explore. Meditations
from ancient traditions and teachings about
grace, compassion and equanimity can move us
towards state of joy, good health, and freedom.
Recommended reading: Hanson, Buddha’s Brain;
Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness.
Singing Gestalt
Nancy Lunney-Wheeler
Old songs are more than tunes, they are little
houses in which our hearts once lived.
Within your unconscious sleeps a library of wisdom, memory, and feeling catalogued in the
words of songs. From lullabies to songs of love
and longing, you have an inner language you
may be unaware of. Even if you think you don’t
know any songs or have forgotten them all, your
subconscious has been storing songs and their
meanings since birth.
The power of Singing Gestalt is in experiencing
a new connection to yourself—a self you may not
have met—expressed in your own true voice
through the wisdom of your songs.
Come alone or bring someone important to
you—a friend, a lover, a parent, someone with
whom you’d like to communicate in a different
way. If you wish, bring photographs of significant people in your life, past or present.
If the idea of getting up and singing in front of
other people terrifies you, this workshop is for
you. If you love to sing in front of other people
and want to stretch yourself further, this workshop is for you. If you have trouble listening to
your own voice, this workshop is for you. If
you’ve been too shy to try, this is your chance.
Some guided imagery and Gestalt may be used.
Accompaniment and lots of lyrics are available.
Connection through Touch:
Massage for Couples
Please note: An interview is required for admission. Please e-mail ann@annbradney.com.
Peggy Horan & Rob Wilks
This weekend is designed to help couples renew
their relationship while exploring touch and
learning massage. The workshop will present
simple massage techniques, developed by
Esalen® Massage practitioners, that have proven
valuable to anyone who wants to help a partner,
friend, or family member feel better. Massage
methods that help relieve pain, increase vitality,
or simply soothe the nerves will be briefly
demonstrated and practiced, with plenty of
hands-on instruction.
At each session, following a demonstration and
warm-up exercise, couples will exchange massages. There will be ample time to explore the
beauty of Esalen’s land and enjoy the warmth of
the healing waters of the mineral baths.
Radical Aliveness:
A Core Energetics Workshop
Ann Bradney
Ann Bradney writes: “There is a state in which
you are fully alive, authentic, and spontaneous.
You are open to all of your feelings, connected to
your strength and your truth. You are not afraid
to know anything about yourself. I call this radical aliveness. In this state you embrace your creativity and see life in all its possibilities.
Standing in the way of radical aliveness are
chronic patterns formed in your past to survive.
These live as frozen feelings and history in your
body and no longer serve you.
“Core Energetics is a powerful body-based system. It frees the frozen feelings and history in
your body by working with the blocked and
held energy. It helps you reconnect with deep
parts of the self that you disconnected from as a
child. It uncovers the power and goodness at the
source of your most destructive patterns. It leads
you to connection with your deepest essence.
“In this workshop, you will work individually
and in groups to understand, transform, and
release the past as you deeply explore, experience, and express your blocked and held energy.
You will work on your relationship to yourself
and explore relating to others in radically alive
ways. You will find what stands in the way of
your full potential for life.”
We will employ a combination of solo and
group writing. A compressed style of writing
can enable us to be more aware, to be better listeners, and to realize that songs live everywhere.
We must capture them and set them free.
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Lynda Greenberg
For many of us, drawing seems to be a mysterious process reserved for the “talented” few, but
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain has
debunked this myth.
Welcoming students who are convinced they
have little talent for drawing and those who
wish to expand their current artistic abilities,
this workshop offers an intensive combination
of discussion and studio exercises. The class is
designed to awaken the perceptual skills necessary for drawing with confidence and has
proven valuable to students at all levels.
Based on the pioneering work of Dr. Betty
Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the
Brain provides a forum on how to see and think
differently by tapping into the non-verbal (nondominant) side of the brain. Set in Esalen’s Art
Barn on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean,
students will have a host of stunning views to
draw and contemplate, including rocky streams,
sunsets, jagged cliffs, and an expansive evergreen forest. In a carefully sequenced process,
participants will explore the strategies of seeing
that will enable them to draw with a high
degree of skill. By workshop’s end participants
will have finished drawings and gained new
thinking strategies to help enhance their general problem-solving capacity.
Please register early; enrollment is limited to 20.
A materials list will be sent upon registration.
All exercises will be preceded by demonstrations and followed by assessments of individual
progress.
Recommended reading: Edwards, Drawing on
the Right Side of the Brain.
($15 materials fee paid directly to the leader)
Songwriting: Catch and Release
Cris Williamson
What’s in a song and how do I write one? “A
song is a made thing, and is most often composed of words, melody, rhythm, and a shape
that holds them all,” writes Cris Williamson.
“We will write every day. We will explore different ways of writing, which will allow you to
access your inner river of thoughts. We will
catch words from that river, fasten them to the
page, and add music to allow a song to emerge.
“You do not need to be a musician or writer to
take this workshop. Anyone can do this, and I
will show you how. Not only can you do this,
but you can be good at it. We all start with baby
steps and grow before our own eyes. This is
deeply beautiful work, hard and so much fun.
Everyone is invited. There is so much joy in this
endeavor.”
Bring a small tape or digital recorder, a thesaurus, dictionary, and rhyming dictionary if
you have one. Bring an instrument if you play
one. You may also bring works-in-progress and
Cris will help you bring them to completion.
Bounce: From Recovery to Resilience
to Thriving
Maria Sirois
“We are the ones we have been waiting for—we
are the ones poised to transform our lives into
lives of meaning, creativity, and productivity;
lives that offer much to the world,” Maria Sirois
writes. “Yet, life can be difficult. If you have
come through a challenging time (job loss, relationship loss, a move, an illness, a tragedy), or
are exhausted by the life you currently live, and
you are compelled to learn all you can to ride the
waves with grace and create a platform for thriving, this workshop is for you. We’ll explore
teachings from the wisdom and poetic traditions, soften our minds and bodies through
mindfulness practices, lay out strategic maps for
our lives, and bring to those maps what the
world of mind/body medicine shows us about
resiliency and thriving. We’ll challenge old
thought patterns, reinvigorate strengths, and
bring forward lessons from those who are
already living inspiring lives. Through poetry,
art, story, group discussion, personal introspection, writing, and awareness development, we
can create new possibilities for ourselves while
healing our suffering. There is no time but now.
There is no one to transform your life but you.
This is the perfect moment to choose a healthier, wiser course. It’s time to bounce into your
fullest life.”
Recommended reading: Wheatley, Perseverance;
Ben-Shahar, Happier; Kabat-Zinn, Full
Catastrophe Living.
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The Healing Art of Deep Bodywork®—
Deep Tissue Skills for Massage
Practitioners: Healing Injuries
to the Neck, Opening the Chest
and Freeing Breath
Perry Holloman & Johanna Holloman
There is growing demand for massage practitioners who have mastered the art of moving
deeply into the body with skill and sensitivity.
The capacity of Deep Bodywork to alleviate
acute and chronic pain has made it an indispensable tool in treating difficult conditions
such as back pain, sciatica, and chronic cervical
pain due to whiplash injuries or other traumatic
events to the upper body. As we open the body’s
deeper soft tissue layers, “stuck” energy in the
form of shortened, hardened tissue is mobilized,
making this energy available to support us in
the process of healing.
This seminar will focus on healing the neck
from chronic and acute pain due to injury and
postural issues, and freeing the chest and ribs
with the intent of opening the vital function of
breath. The capacity to fully expand our chests
in taking a full, free breath is perhaps the body’s
most important tool in unwinding the ongoing
stress we accumulate in life. Restriction in this
vital capacity can lead to collapsing of the chest,
a forward leaning posture of the neck and head,
and chronic pain in many areas of the upper
body as a secondary result. Our ability to deal
with emotional stress can be severely limited if
breath is restricted in its vital, healing function.
Through our discussion of relevant anatomy, we
will explore how an open chest balances the
shoulder girdle, providing an organized base for
the neck and head. We will look at the structural
complexity of the neck in understanding why
injury to this vital area can be so difficult to heal.
Massage experience is highly recommended for
this advanced level class. This seminar is part of
the Deep Bodywork for Massage Practitioners
series developed by Perry and Johanna
Holloman. For more information, visit
www.deepbodywork.com.
January 14–21
Advanced Bodywork: Touching the Core
Char Pias & Jessica Fagan
In this massage intensive workshop, we will
focus on the abdominal and pelvic regions of
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the body, addressing both energetic and structural dynamics. Often the abdomen is treated
superficially, when in fact it is our center, our
core, and the place of digestion and assimilation
of all life experiences. The pelvic region is the
“cradle,” or seat of power, the bridge between
the upper body and the legs. The psoas muscles,
considered the fight/flight muscles of the
human species, span this bridge. During any
emotional or physical trauma, the psoas muscles
contract to protect the underbelly of the human
animal. Chronic psoas contraction and abdominal tension can produce lumbar pain as well as
referred cervical and shoulder pain.
This week’s objectives are twofold: First, to provide a learning environment for techniques to
use with our clients, such as a soft approach
to deep tissue, active/passive release, and joint
mobilizations to address the physical holding
patterns in the muscles. Our second objective is
to create a restorative and reflective environment for our personal development and self
care. Utilizing somatic exercises, dance and
movement, and asana (physical postures) and
pranayama (conscious breathing) from yogic traditions, we can gain an inner sense of the
body/mind connection and learn ways that help
support and shift these energetic/structural
imbalances.
Note: Prior bodywork training is required.
Contact charpias@sbcglobal.net with any questions.
January 14–17
Experiencing Esalen
Esalen Staff
We must answer anew the old questions. “What are
the limits of human ability, the boundaries of the
human experience? What does it mean to be a
human being?” — From the 1965 Esalen Catalog
Make the most out of this special extended
weekend holiday offering. Experiencing Esalen
is a workshop that introduces participants to
some of the transformational practices of
Esalen. Designed for first-time participants or
those renewing their acquaintance with Esalen,
the emphasis is on finding those approaches to
personal growth that work most effectively for
each participant. Sessions may include: meditation, sensory awareness, Gestalt Practice, group
process, art, movement, and massage. There will
also be time to explore the magnificence of the
Big Sur coast. Special pricing applies to this special three-day workshop. Please contact the
Esalen office for details.
Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice
Joyce Catlett & Lisa Firestone
Are you living the life you were destined to live
or are you living someone else’s? Are your
actions based on what you truly feel and believe,
or on negative programming from your past?
Lisa Firestone and Joyce Catlett, coauthors of
Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice, are ready to
challenge your customary ways of thinking
about yourself, your relationships, and your
career. The goal? To expand your boundaries and
help you achieve more fulfillment in life. Based
on theories and methods developed by clinical
psychologist Robert W. Firestone, this workshop
can help you counter negative thinking and live
free from imagined limitations. Through videos,
interactive discussions, and various exercises,
the presenters will illustrate a number of important topics vital to an emotionally healthy existence:
• How do guilt and shame affect us in our
everyday lives? How do negative thoughts
about ourselves keep shame and guilt alive?
• How do destructive thoughts and attitudes
undermine our efforts to achieve our full
potential in our work lives?
• How does the inner voice interfere with
intimacy and closeness in our relationships?
• Why does sex seem to become unexciting or
routine for many couples after marriage?
• How can people challenge the destructive
thoughts or voices that influence addictive
behavior, and break free of these patterns?
• How can we deal effectively with negative
thinking that leads to a destructive spiral of
depression and hopelessness?
The Mind/Body Connection:
Enhancing the Body’s Ability
to Heal and Function Optimally
Stephen Sideroff
Physical and emotional holding patterns as well
as habitual behaviors can result from emotional
pain and defenses. Along with stress, they cause
it. Please bring drums and/or any instruments
(if you have them), along with a significant item
to place on a communal altar as a way of sharing
your essence. No previous dance or drumming
experience is necessary. Open to participants
age 14 and up. Teens must be accompanied by an
adult.
Celebrating Womanhood
HANNS BECKER
Johanna Holloman & Nora Matten
muscle tension and nervous system reactivity
and imbalance. This impacts physical symptoms
and interferes with healing and the body’s optimal functioning.
Pain and other symptoms can also be maintained unconsciously as a distraction from emotional issues. By addressing the underlying
issues and coping better with stress, the body is
able to let go more readily. This improves blood
flow, affects biochemical balance, improves
physical health, and enhances performance.
This workshop is designed to help you recognize and release emotional and physical holding
patterns and learn more appropriate responses
to stress. Thus your body becomes more
resilient and heals better. Discussion along with
experiential work will facilitate greater selfawareness, emotional release, and body self-regulation. This workshop addresses:
• The connection between emotions, stress, and
physical symptoms including pain
• Identifying and resolving emotional holding
patterns and unfinished business
• Introduction to relaxation and biofeedback
techniques
• Coping with stress and correcting the chronic
imbalance of your nervous system
• Redesigning your body’s “fight or flight”
response to enhance resilience
• Dealing with anger and depression
• Destructive patterns such as perfectionism,
obsessiveness, and addictions
• New and more effective ways of thinking and
controlling thoughts
• Creating your personal program for healing
and optimal functioning
The Brazilian Soul: A Dance and
Drumming Workshop
Cida Vieira & Jayson Fann
In Brazil, dance and music are a large part of
everyone’s life—a box of wooden matches
becomes a musical instrument; a soccer field
becomes a dance floor during games. Dance and
music are everywhere, present in all events in
which people celebrate love, friendship, sensuality, and zest for life. The premise: Life is happening right now, and this alone is enough to
become a celebration among friends, family, and
community.
During this weekend, Cida Vieira and Jayson
Fann offer a chance to experience the joyful
spirit of Brazil-away-from-Brazil. This hands-on
(and “feet-on”) workshop will explore the instruments, rhythms, music, and the samba dance do
jeitinho brasieliro (“of the Brazilian way”).
Cida writes: “My teaching focuses more on
movement than on technical aspects, so that
participants can achieve a lively workout and,
most important, have fun, until they begin to
feel the movement emerging from their own
body, heart, and soul.”
Drumming and dancing are for everyone with
the desire to join in. This workshop is for anyone who enjoys or wants to learn more about
the aliveness of Brazilian dance, music, and spir-
This retreat offers women space and time to
reconnect with their essential feminine nature.
“In our busy lives as career women, mothers,
and homemakers, it is easy to lose touch with
our receptive and creative aspects,” write the
leaders. “It is easy to get stuck in a pattern of
caretaking while forgetting about nurturing ourselves. During our time together we will reawaken receptivity and creativity by nurturing the
connection to ourselves and our bodies while
replenishing our sense of our femininity within
a community of women.
Through the practices of dance, yoga, and massage, and inquiry into our experience, we will
learn how to access the essential nature at the
core of our beings and find new inspiration and
guidance for our lives.”
Johanna Holloman will offer gentle yoga as a
way to open areas that may feel dry, painful, or
tight in our bodies, reconnecting with an inner
sense of fluidity and vibrancy. Influenced by the
work of Vinn Martí’s Soul Motion™, Nora
Matten focuses on leading people into listening,
following, and expressing their own movement
impulses, moving into a deeper, more meaningful relationship with self and one another.
Together we will use powerful methods of selfinquiry, allowing the sense of our feminine presence to become more immediate. The retreat
also includes a pampering and healing session at
the baths overlooking the ocean. Come join us
for this celebration of womanhood in the heart
of the wild beauty of the Esalen grounds and the
healing natural hot springs where we will relax,
unwind, and support one other while revitalizing our feminine spirit. Please bring a yoga mat.
Spinal Awareness (with Humor):
The Essence of Feldenkrais® and
Energy Work
Patrick Douce
The movements of Spinal Awareness are quite
different from normal exercises. They empha-
17
size learning how to move in ways that stimulate your awareness of your body. They involve
learning to use the floor to organize and integrate your own spinal column. Standing lessons
lead to a new awareness of ways to move with
better balance and fluidity. Special emphasis
will be placed on any difficulties participants
may have, such as lower back pain, hip trouble,
tension in the neck and shoulders, and knee
injuries.
This work will focus on how we can re-learn
how to overcome our limitations in movement
and functioning. Special emphasis will be
placed on Skeletal Awareness. Students will be
given a new understanding of how tension and
injury are often involved with the disorganization in the skeletal-muscular parts of our bodies.
Lessons inspired by Indonesian Silat will be
used to stimulate the energy body, effecting
internal health and increasing energy. These
movements, originating from the monasteries
of China and Tibet, further increase healing
possibilities. Safe and noninvasive hands-on
lessons will be presented that can greatly speed
up improvements.
This workshop will evolve with humor and
playfulness. Fun partner lessons will help bring
about not only freedom in the body but the
return to the childlike energy essential to us all.
This is a program designed for both the beginner and the professional.
Perfectly Human: Discovering Your
Nature as Nature
Wesley Nisker
We share 25% of our DNA with bananas.
Get over yourself.
—T-shirt slogan
death and dying, and the nature of consciousness. The talks and discussions will present both
traditional Buddhist views of self and reality, as
well as some of the latest information from evolutionary science. Darwin and the Dharma
come together as the wisdom of the East meets
the genius of the West to aid in our liberation
and, ultimately, in our survival as a species. One
of the unique aspects of this retreat is that we
will be doing some of our meditation sessions
outside in a beautiful natural setting.
Mosaic Art: From the Ordinary
to the Extraordinary
Jayson Fann
To invent you need a good imagination
and a pile of junk.
—Thomas Edison
Mosaic is the ancient art of assembling and
adhering variously colored and textured material, such as tile, stone, and stained glass. Known
for its rich texture and visual depth, mosaic is
found throughout the world. Whether in an
intricately-tiled portrait or a table in your home,
mosaic is a medium that transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.
In this workshop, students will be provided
with a wealth of colorful tiles and stones,
stained glass, jewels, and trinkets with which to
create. (Soon the sound of your favorite dish
shattering will ring with the delight of artistic
possibility.)
Students are free to work on a range of projects—
a hanging mirror, a lamp or small table, a sculpture, a garden stepping-stone. By the end of the
workshop students will have completed several
projects to take home with them.
“This workshop offers a new path of liberation
using Buddhist insight meditation to explore
and experience the human condition, aided by
some of the latest findings of evolutionary biology and neuroscience,” writes Wes Nisker. “As
we come to know ourselves as part of the wider
web of cosmic and biological evolution, our
lives gain meaning and we begin to feel a new
sense of enchantment and connection with the
world.”
The workshop will feature traditional Buddhist
practices of sitting and walking meditation and
guided meditations on the following themes:
the evolutionary origin of thoughts and emotions, the elements that constitute our bodies,
18
A Holistic Approach to Vision Care:
Behavioral Optometry and Vision
Therapy
Sam Berne
medicine? If you answered yes to any of these
questions, this workshop may be for you.
Conventional eye care focuses on physical
symptoms and treats the eyes separately from
the body. In this workshop, you will be taught
how the eyes are intimately connected to the
brain and body, and how our movement, attitudes, and energy field patterns control how we
see and react to life situations. Explore a process
called vision therapy—an integrated approach to
reeducating the eyes, brain, and body to work
together with more harmony. We will go
beyond a mechanistic set of eye exercises and
draw on a set of daily practices that are designed
to improve mind-body integration. Sam Berne
will discuss each participant’s eyes status and/or
lens prescription and offer suggestions for
improvement. This workshop helps you:
• Discover how movement, breath, and sound
enhance brain integration, learning, and vision
• Balance the masculine-feminine dynamic
through dialogue using therapeutic lenses,
prisms, and an eye patch
• Experience light/color therapy to improve
peripheral vision and body energy patterns
• See your energy fields and chakras through
Electrophotonic Imaging, a camera and
software system that measures the photon
emissions from your fingertips to reveal the
body’s energy fields
Recommended reading: Berne, Creating Your
Personal Vision; Barry, Fixing My Gaze; Oschman,
Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human
Performance.
($15 materials fee paid directly to the leader for
Brock string, eye patch, and color therapy gels)
A New Beginning: Courage and Heart
Mary Goldenson
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began . . .
—Mary Oliver
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear,
not absence of fear.
—Mark Twain
Are your eyes getting worse every year? Do you
suffer from nearsightedness, farsightedness,
astigmatism, or presbyopia (the “over 40” syndrome)? Have you been diagnosed with macular
degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts, or other eye
diseases? Do you have learning problems or
have you experienced a traumatic brain injury
or birth trauma? Are you interested in energy
“In this workshop,” Mary Goldenson writes, “we
will courageously peer into the depths of our
hearts and minds to ask:
• Does my life reflect my heart’s desires?
• If fear did not stop me, what might I be doing
differently?
• What truths do I need to tell to live?
• To whom or what have I given power over my
life? What must I do to reclaim it?
• How shall I live, knowing I shall die?
“More than the answers, our questions define
where the real meaning of our life resides.
Firmly grounded in the moment, we will
explore ways to reconnect with our source of
creativity and spirituality.”
This workshop offers ways to help complete the
past, be open to the present, and create the
future. A safe, supportive environment will be
provided. Didactic and experiential exercises
will draw from Gestalt, Reichian work, imagery,
dance, and meditation.
This workshop may have up to 34 participants.
Recommended reading: Goldenson, It’s Time—No
One’s Coming to Save You.
Trauma, Memory, and the Restoration
of One’s Self
processes information and the body engages
with the world. Because of altered biological systems, traumatized people continue to be trapped
by their history and react to current experience
in a myriad of ways as a replay of the past. We
explore the neurobiology of self-regulation and
examine ways of befriending one’s body, both of
which are essential for the integration of traumatic memories: sensations, action patterns, and
physical sensations derived from the past.
Most experience is automatically processed on
subcortical, that is, unconscious, levels in the
brain. Therefore, insight and understanding
have only a limited influence on people’s control
over these processes. We study and experience
the capacity of techniques such as EMDR, yoga,
Internal Family Systems Therapy, theater work,
and neurofeedback to help people overcome a
traumatic past and regain the capacity to be fully
alive in the present.
Bessel van der Kolk
Kirtan Flight School
This course explores how trauma affects people’s
rhythms within themselves and with their surroundings. Trauma changes the way the brain
Dave Stringer & Band
If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.
All participants are organized into small ensembles. Each ensemble then chooses a chant,
rehearses it together, and presents a kirtan to the
group. The instructors rotate through the groups,
working closely with the participants to develop
rhythmic and harmonic concepts, solve problems, and answer questions. The history and philosophy of kirtan are also intensively explored,
and participants learn how to present and discuss the mantras. Participants are encouraged to
bring musical instruments with them, but it is
understood that the most important instruments
are human voices and hands. Instruction will be
offered in playing the harmonium and finger
cymbals, and a limited number of these instruments will be on hand for use by all.
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
—JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan
Kirtan, an Eastern form of call-and-response
mantra chanting, is experiencing a creative and
popular renaissance in the West. In this consciousness-transforming practice, singers seek
to vanish into the song just as raindrops merge
into the ocean. Ecstasy is both the process and
the product. Today, musicians and audiences all
over the world are reinvigorating this ancient
musical form with modern ideas and techniques. Many people are now inspired to participate in kirtan groups or to introduce chanting to
yoga classes. If you’re one of those people, this
workshop is for you.
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One of the most thrilling things about kirtan is
watching people light up in the discovery of
their own musical selves. When you participate
in a kirtan, you’re not just listening to the music.
You are the music.
spiritual growth. Experience the fundamentals
of working with scent, including how to blend a
perfume and how to create a perfume formula.
Plenty of hands-on participation with essential
oils culminates in creating a liquid perfume and
a solid perfume from your own original formula. No experience or special skills are necessary.
Recommended reading: Aftel, Essence and
Alchemy: A Book of Perfume.
Essence and Alchemy:
Creating Natural Perfume
Mandy Aftel
Awakening Joy
Fragrance has the instantaneous and invisible
power to penetrate consciousness. It is both tangible and intangible, earthly and ethereal,
worthless and priceless, real and magical. To discover the art of natural perfumery is to participate in a spiritual process as well as an aesthetic
one. Using essential oils, with their rich histories, properties, and symbolism, immerses the
perfumer in a process of personal transformation.
James Baraz & Jane Baraz
Learn basic principles and experiential exercises
drawn from Buddhist philosophy, and other
supportive practices which are presented in a
user-friendly way. Explore techniques for devel-
Please note: You do not have to be a “joyful person” to benefit from this workshop, though you
might have fun anyway.
Recommended reading: Baraz and Alexander,
Awakening Joy: 10 Steps That Will Put You on the
Road to Real Happiness; Foster and Hicks, How We
Choose to Be Happy.
KIM QUINONES
This experiential workshop is designed for all
who wish to understand the world of scent and,
through it, discover aspects of creativity and
True happiness is not about acquiring anything
but rather opening to the natural joy and aliveness right inside of you. Awakening Joy is based
on a popular ten-month course taken by thousands since 2003, and designed to develop our
natural capacities for wellbeing and happiness.
oping gratitude, learning to love yourself, opening up to the hard stuff as a path to joy, and finding joy in the happiness of others. Perhaps you
can’t imagine yourself skipping through a meadow with childlike exuberance. Don’t worry.
Truly happy people are not happy all the time.
They feel sad and angry and have the whole
range of human emotions. Joy is a general feeling of aliveness and wellbeing that is characterized by engagement with life, meeting its ups
and downs with authenticity and perspective. It
can look very different from person to person,
from a quiet sense of contentment to bubbly
enthusiasm. Identifying how joy expresses itself
uniquely through you is one of the discoveries
that awaits.
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The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain
and Body in the Transformation of Trauma
Peter Levine & Bessel van der Kolk
This workshop unites two of the leading figures
in the field of trauma research and body-oriented treatment approaches. Together they will
explore the implications of recent findings in
the neurosciences, from how the brain and body
deal with emotional information to an understanding of effective therapeutic action.
The leaders will show how the trauma response
is a specific defensive bodily reaction that people initially mobilize in order to protect themselves, and then use against feeling the totality
of their horror, helplessness, or pain. However,
in the long range this response keeps them
frozen, stuck in the past, unable to fully be in
the here-and-now. Fixed in the defensive trauma
response, the shame, defeat, and humiliation
associated with the original event replays itself
over and over again in the body, detached from
history, but experienced in the present.
Traditionally, therapies have attempted to
change perceptions of the world by means of
reason and insight, along with conditioning,
behavior modification, drugs, and medications.
However, perceptions remain fundamentally
unchanged until the internal experience of the
body changes. Even after the death of a loved
one, physical injury, rape, or assault, people can
learn to have new bodily experiences, then
come to heal and accept what has happened and
create new lives and new communities.
This workshop will be filmed, but each participant has the option to decline being filmed.
Weekend Esalen® Massage Intensive:
The Basics
Daniela Urbassek & Laurie Lioness Parizek
During an Esalen Massage, we experience a
remarkable web of interdependence: a listening
touch, a deepening breath, our nervous system
soothed in connection with another. When we
receive a massage we may remember an easier
time and “come home.”
Esalen Massage seeks the interface between
form and energy, physical structure and the
soul, you and I. The long, integrative strokes
build a sense of presence, while deeper focused
work evokes release of tension patterns. Daniela
Urbassek and Laurie Lioness Parizek have
shared this grounding, loving practice with
many different people, and know the joy and
healing that this form of calming and revitalizing touch can bring to people of diverse backgrounds and personalities.
During this retreat, through brief demonstrations, one-on-one guidance, and plenty of practice time, you will have the opportunity to awaken your own talent and resources to easily and
safely give and receive the basic elements of an
Esalen Massage. To support you in your massage
learning experience, centering, grounding and
self-care exercises are also included in the workshop presentation.
how to easily work on themselves alone or with
friends and family. A take-home handbook with
points and protocols is provided as part of the
class. Please bring two soft rubber balls (2-3 inch
diameter, often sold for children’s play. Hackey
sacks also work well) and a single, long sock to
hold them in.
Recommended reading: Raheem, Soul Return.
In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body
Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness
Peter Levine
This course offers foundation skills to the newcomer and a fresh approach for the practitioner.
There is also plenty of time to breath in the
beauty of the Big Sur Coast.
Acupressure for Anyone
Aminah Raheem
Learn how to balance your own and other people’s energy through the ancient method of acupressure in an easy, relaxed, and joyful way.
Acupressure is a method of touching the body
on specific points, the same ones used in
acupuncture, to promote holistic wellness. It
pre-dates acupuncture and has been used successfully for many conditions for more than
four thousand years. During this workshop, you
will be shown simple, gentle, and precise methods to touch the body. Many special points are
taught, with their names and applications,
including “spirit” points that promote alignment
and centering. Participants will also be shown
point combinations that demonstrate how to
balance the body’s energy in a deeply relaxing
way, release stress, and address various common
symptoms such as headaches, backaches, and
colds. A movement meditation, Chakra Tai Chi,
is taught for alignment and centering, as well as
the Soul Lightening Acupressure SEVA (selfless
service) protocol. SEVA was designed after 9/11
to ease shock and stress for emergency helpers
at Ground Zero. The method has proved so
effective that it has been taught around the
world for stress relief, in hospitals, hospices, and
clinics.
Anyone, regardless of bodywork background,
can benefit from the class. Participants can learn
“Trauma is neither a disease nor a disorder, but is
rather an injury caused by paralyzing fright,
helplessness, and loss,” Peter Levine writes. “By
enlisting the wisdom of the living, sensing body,
and engaging our innate capacity to self-regulate
high states of arousal and intense emotions,
trauma can be transformed and healed.
“Together we will explore how it is possible to
live life robustly with pleasure and creativity,
even in the face of the most painful assaults to
our humanity, and also in the face of deceptively
trivial ones. From an evolutionary understanding of the source of trauma to a spiritual dimension of how we as human beings can be
strengthened by traumatic healing, this journey
unfolds—if we learn to attend to the unspoken
voice of the body. In this exploration we will
work with drawing, body-mindfulness, group
exercises, and individual work.” Please note:
Sessions will be filmed.
Awakening the Inner Voice of Creativity
Dana Zed
This is a workshop for those who would like to
express themselves without censor or judgment.
We will dialogue with one another and with our
inner selves, letting the full conversation be
expressed in many forms. Some of the media
available will be collage, glass, painting, clay, silk
scarves, mosaic, jewelry, and photography. We
will explore the phenomenal Esalen grounds,
which are rich in stimulation and nourishment.
There is very little in life that is free of being
seen as right or wrong, good or bad. Art resides
in this judgment-free space. When we are constantly pulled one way and another by the
demands of our everyday life, it is often difficult
to hear our own voices. Making art is an experi-
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ence of hearing that voice and acting on it! You
have permission to do what you want! It’s up to
all of you. Listening to and following through
on your own creation will be fun and also personally transformative. Absolutely no art experience is necessary to fully benefit from this class.
Writing in(to) Bliss
Gillian Kendall
Many writers consider writing drudgery even on
a good day. Most of us like having written something a lot more than we like churning out drafts.
But in this workshop participants can learn, or
remember how, to enjoy the process of writing
and still express our deepest meanings and most
peculiar perceptions, to write precisely and dramatically about difficult emotions and events.
“In these five days,” Gilllian Kendall writes, “we
will use writing techniques both wild and
domesticated to access and express our individual, inner truth(s). Starting from wide sweeps of
memory, intuition, and undefined feeling, participants will move through shaping content
into appropriate forms to doing deft, line-by-line
editing, finishing pieces that other people will
want to hear and read. (That’s where the bliss
comes in.) We will spend about two-thirds of
our time writing and rewriting, and about onethird in sharing and discussion, honoring each
person’s desires for privacy and/or feedback.”
The exercises and techniques are geared towards
prose, memoir, personal essay, or fiction.
However, poets are welcome, as are all writers
from beginning to advanced.
Says Gillian, “My creative philosophy combines
some Jung, some co-counseling, some
Christianity and Zen Buddhism, lots of gentle
feminism and even more gentle exercise, graduate degrees, my love of oceans, animals, and
food. A professional writer and manuscript evaluator, I offer a detailed, written critique to each
workshop member, along with lots of encouragement and advice.”
Acting 101
This is a five-day workshop where you can have
a heck of a lot of fun and learn a technique that
lays the groundwork for auditioning for theater,
TV, or film. Or maybe you just want to experience the life skills that acting training provides.
Using Second City improvisational technique
as well as a distillation of Stanislavsky and
Strasberg, Meisner and Method, the class will
explore, stimulate, and excite in a warm and
supportive environment. The workshop will
incorporate theater and improv games and students will immediately jump into scenes and
monologues—perhaps chosen from their own
favorite pieces (scripts will also be provided as
desired).
The workshop is geared for someone without
previous training or experience but is also a
great five-day intensive for those more
advanced. You won’t be bored.
The Impossible Dream: Living Beyond
Self-Limiting Behavior
Richard Balaban, Chris Chouteau
& Julie Bowden
A life beyond our greatest expectations is made
possible by knowing ourselves and being fulfilled in work and love. Self-limiting behaviors
and mood-altering substances undermine this
dream and prevent us from embracing actions
that promote our growth, wellbeing, and emotional health. Those committed to their own
dreams and goals in life can move beyond the
barriers caused by personal addiction, a loved
one’s addiction, and the other behaviors that
keep us from our true purpose in life. Living
with self-limiting behaviors and addictions
makes the normal passage through life’s developmental stages difficult and impedes the
important tasks of becoming a fulfilled human
being: self-esteem, expression of feelings, awareness of needs, establishment of trust, success in
relationships, to name but a few.
This workshop will use group and individual
work—meditation, awareness practice, feedback,
experiential exercises, role-play, guided imagery,
and writing—to navigate a path toward effective
change, enhanced relationships, genuine intimacy, and spiritual growth.
Jack Thomas & Gabe Cohen
Have you ever been watching actors perform
when the thought suddenly came to you that you
could do it better? Then what usually follows is all
the negative self-talk: It would take years of training, I’m too nervous, too old, too unattractive, etc.,
etc. The little secret here is that you are perfect as
you are and that you absolutely can do it better!
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Participants are asked to forgo alcohol and nonprescription drugs during these five days. This
sets the arena to identify self-limiting behaviors
and commit to living your dreams.
Recommended reading: Gravitz and Bowden,
Recovery: A Guide for Adult Children of Alcoholics.
Practicing Presence through BodyCentered Awareness
Patrice Hamilton
Our bodies are our greatest resource and provide a direct path for exploring our unconscious,
limiting beliefs, and the emotions tied to them.
The issues are in the tissues. By increasing
awareness of our bodies, we connect with the
here-and-now, where change and growth are
possible. Habitual beliefs and behaviors formed
early in life lead to habitual ways of responding
that limit life experience. When we learn to recognize the ways we have organized ourselves
around these beliefs we can discover that there
are other choices available. Through mindfulness, movement, and contact with others, we
can create new habits.
This experiential class blends the slow, developmental movement of Cortical Field Reeducation
(CFR) with Gestalt Practice and the Hakomi
method. These awareness practices can facilitate
the release of physical restrictions and suppressed
emotions as well as a greater understanding and
felt experience of the connections between mind
and body. You can emerge from this workshop
feeling more grounded and comfortable in your
body, more empowered, and more able to fully
express yourself in the world. All you need is
willingness to explore with curiosity and compassion. Join me as we explore what is possible!
Recommended reading: Kurtz, Body Centered
Psychotherapy; Perls, Gestalt Verbatim; Feldenkrais,
The Potent Self.
Being Danced: 5Rhythms® Essentials
Andrea Juhan
“It is a glorious moment when we feel at one
with the creative life force that moves and
breathes through us,” says Andrea Juhan. “In this
workshop, we will engage the 5Rhythms movement practice to create a structure that invites
and contains more of these moments. With its
roots in Shamanic and Sufi traditions, the
5Rhythms dance practice is an open form that
catalyzes powerful emotional and spiritual energies and invites these energies to move through
our physical bodies. By focusing our awareness
in each of the 5Rhythms – flowing, staccato,
chaos, lyrical, and stillness – we become present
and grounded, quieting our minds and cultivating an expanded sense of Being in our own bod-
ies. The intention of this weekend is introduce
and practice the basics of this simple yet elegant
form of movement meditation.”
This is a practice that anyone – regardless of size,
shape, age, or level of fitness – can engage in. No
previous dance experience, 5Rhythms or otherwise, is required. All you need is willingness,
curiosity, and a desire to move and be moved.
The Writing Life
Ellen Bass
Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.
—Anne Sexton
“This workshop,” writes Ellen Bass, “will allow us
to leave the rush of our busy lives and be still
enough to hear the stories and poems that gestate within us. We’ll write, share our writing, and
hear what our work touches in others. We’ll help
each other to become clearer, go deeper, take
new risks. With the safety, support and inspiration of this gathering, you will have the opportunity to create writing that is more vivid, more
true, more complex and powerful than you’ve
been able to do before.”
Whether you are interested in poetry, fiction,
nonfiction, memoir, or journal writing, this
weekend will provide a time to immerse yourself in the writing life. Both beginners and experienced writers are welcome.
There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening
that is translated through you into action. And
because there is only one of you in all time, this
expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never
exist through any other medium, and be lost. The
world will not have it. It is not your business to
determine how good it is, nor how valuable, nor how
it compares with other expressions. It is your business
to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the
channel open.
—Martha Graham
Recommended reading: Bass, The Human Line
and Mules of Love; Addonizio and Laux, The Poet’s
Companion.
Introduction to Gestalt Awareness
Practice
Christine Price
Gestalt Awareness Practice is a form—nonanalytic, noncoercive, nonjudgmental—derived
from the work of Fritz Perls, influenced by
Buddhist practice, and evolved by Richard and
Christine Price. The work integrates ways of
personal clearing and development that are
both ancient and modern. To the extent that
awareness is made primary, Gestalt Awareness
Practice has a strong relationship to some forms
of meditation. Emotional and energetic release
and rebalancing are also allowed and encouraged. The emphasis is intrapersonal rather than
interpersonal. Participants are not patients but
persons actively consenting to explore in awareness. The leader functions to reflect, clarify, and
respect whatever emerges in this process. The
aim is unfoldment, wholeness, and growth,
rather than adjustment, cure, or accomplishment. This introductory workshop is both
didactic and experiential. Utilizing group exercises, meditations, and discussion, participants
work with each other to explore ways of
increasing our quality of awareness as well as
working with what arises in the process. Open
seat work may be included but is not the focus
of the workshop. Please note: Meeting times for
this workshop are longer than the average
Esalen workshop.
Recommended reading: Perls, Gestalt Therapy
Verbatim; Chodron, The Wisdom of No Escape.
January 30–February 6
The “Pointing Out” Way of Tibetan
Buddhist Meditation-Advanced Course
Daniel Brown
This retreat is for meditators who have previously taken the basic Pointing Out retreat with
Dan Brown, and who have been able to stabilize
their samadhi at the very subtle level of mind
(for example, simultaneous mind, ocean and
waves, sealing the emptiness of everything) at
least during that retreat. This retreat will
emphasize deep concentration, namely the last
three of Asanga’s Nine States of Mental
Calming/Staying, those pertaining to automatic
concentration at the subtle level of mind,
including one-pointedness and equanimity. The
retreat will cover a wider range of ordinary special insight and emptiness meditations than in
the basic course. The extraordinary special
insight meditations will unpack the yoga of
non-meditation in greater detail than in the
basic course, especially concerning instructions
on particularizing and awareness reflecting
itself to itself. Greater emphasis will be given to
“greater capacity meditations” on ultimate compassion, the Buddha-bodies, and path-walking in
everyday life. Practice is followed carefully and
instructions are individualized for each student.
Enrollment is limited to thirty-six participants
and participants must attend all sessions.
Please bring a meditation cushion, if you would
like to use one.
Week of January 30–February 4
Dream Dance: 5Rhythms® and Gestalt
Awareness Practice in the Land of
Imagery
Andrea Juhan & Christine Price
A dream is a wish your heart makes
when you’re fast asleep.
—Cinderella
“Dreams form a wild, creative landscape within
our minds each night,” the leaders write.
“Sometimes a piece of a dream haunts us
throughout the day or maybe the last moment
of a dream wakes us up with a start. The process
of telling, exploring, and embodying dream
images can open the door to an inner world,
bringing new understanding and wisdom.
“Dreams offer us ways to integrate disowned
parts of ourselves, complete unfinished situations, and explore the unknown. Dreams thrive
on our attention. The Gestalt approach encourages us to explore every image and situation in a
dream as a projected part of ourselves. Combining
Gestalt with the 5Rhythms Movement
Meditation gives us an embodied movement
vocabulary to expand our ‘entering of the dream’
through shape, rhythm, and movement.
“We suggest keeping a dream journal prior to
the workshop. Do not discount the very brief or
vague dream fragments, especially if your dream
recall is limited. Write down everything you
remember, including your sensory awareness
upon waking. This process is primarily to stimulate your dream recall. Participation in the workshop does not rely on having abundant memory
of dreams but does require interest in entering
imagery as a door to self-exploration.”
Prior experience with the 5Rhythms Movement
Meditation or Gestalt Awareness Practice is
encouraged, though not required.
Please note: This workshop has longer than usual
hours.
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Finding Your Long Lost Musician
David Darling
Open your heart to the mystery of sound. Join
David Darling in this inspirational workshop
designed to provide tools for lifelong musical performance and appreciation. Darling has spent the
last forty years developing methods that bring
people face to face with their own wondrous and
unique sounds and rhythms. He creates a liberating environment in which each participant has
the opportunity to discover and work with his or
her musical abilities. Working individually and
in groups participants use their voices, bodies and
instruments they already play, have always wanted to play, or want to start playing again.
During the workshop you can:
• Enjoy free movement, chanting, and
drumming
• Explore how we hear and receive musical
vibration
• Connect with and claim your own innate
rhythm and timing
• Discover how to eliminate stage fright and a
negative musical self-image
Darling is known for his energetic, loving, and
accepting style of bringing out the musical soul
in all of us. Sessions are relaxed and centered on
the profound qualities and the wonders of
music. Participants leave with a humorous, joyful, and exhilarating sense of their musical creations. No previous experience in making music
is necessary.
Please bring instruments that you want to play.
Piano and percussion instruments are provided.
This workshop is also presented in a weekend
format February 4-6.
Weekend of February 4–6
Finding Your Long Lost Musician
David Darling
Open your heart to the mystery of sound. Join
David Darling in this inspirational workshop
designed to provide tools for lifelong musical
performance and appreciation. Darling has
spent the last forty years developing methods
that bring people face to face with their own
wondrous and unique sounds and rhythms. He
creates a liberating environment in which each
participant has the opportunity to discover and
work with his or her musical abilities. Working
individually and in groups participants use their
24
voices, bodies, and instruments they already
play, have always wanted to play, or want to start
playing again.
During the workshop you can:
• Enjoy free movement, chanting, and
drumming
• Explore how we hear and receive musical
vibration
• Connect with and claim your own innate
rhythm and timing
• Discover how to eliminate stage fright and a
negative musical self-image
Darling is known for his energetic, loving, and
accepting style of bringing out the musical soul in
all of us. Sessions are relaxed and centered on the
profound qualities and the wonders of music.
Participants leave with a humorous, joyful, and
exhilarating sense of their musical creations. No
previous experience in making music is necessary.
Please bring instruments that you want to play.
Piano and percussion instruments are provided.
This workshop is also presented in a five-day
format January 30-February 4.
Rediscovering Your Self in the Second
Half of Life: For Women
Karen Ely
Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake.
—Henry David Thoreau
Karen Ely believes that in today’s hectic, timestarved world it is even more important to find
time for renewal, time to step back and assess
where we’ve come from and who we are after a
lifetime of being everything to everybody. “We
must find a space to dream,” she writes. “A space
to let go of all the wouldas, shouldas, and couldas in order to make room for a new way of
being, one that’s firmly based in our authentic
selves, one filled with joy and passion.” Daring to
Dream: Reflections on the Year I Found Myself is
Karen’s personal story of rebirth following the
end of her thirty-two-year marriage. It chronicles coming to grips with a life that she could no
longer live, and walking toward a self that she
no longer knew. Throughout the workshop,
Karen will share her personal story and the
tools that supported her on a magical journey
back to herself.
Through large and small group exercises, quiet,
music, joyful playing, and journaling, participants will be taken on a quiet journey back to
themselves, and given the opportunity to leave
with a passion and plan for the rest of their
lives.
Deep Healing: The Essence of
Mind/Body Medicine
Emmett Miller
“At our essence is a divine ‘Knower,’ ” says Emmett
Miller, “an inner healer and guide. Invalidated
and injured by trauma, stress, and neglect, this
abused spirit retreats, depriving us of its wisdom
and healing. Separated from this spirit, something in us hungers and, unfed, grows weaker,
shrivels, and may even die. At every level—personal, family, community, cultural, and planetary—this spirit has been wounded deeply, and is
still being wounded. The result: stress, illness, violence, and dysfunction, visible everywhere.”
Emmett Miller’s goal is to go past the symptoms
to the source to reconnect with the spirit, the
vital force of love, life, wholeness, and healing.
In this workshop, he guides participants in
awakening the healer within, both personally
and as a community of beings on a small planet.
The workshop focuses on:
• Letting go of stress, relaxing deeply, and
entering the Healing State
• Exploring how beliefs and images become
physical and behavioral events (symptoms)
• Allowing the inner healer to channel
thoughts, developing beliefs and images that
lead to wellness and peak performance
• Learning tools for integrity of thoughts,
feelings, and behavior
• The direct experience of joyful self-awareness,
healing, and peace
The workshop features hands-on experience,
deep relaxation, imagery and movement, group
discussion, and lecture. It is designed for professionals and lay persons, beginners and experts
alike.
Recommended reading: Articles and excerpts at
www.DrMiller.com; Miller, Deep Healing: The
Essence of Mind/Body Medicine.
A Tender Invitation
David Schiffman
“Our aims for this weekend are simple,” writes
David Schiffman. “To join together and share the
magical, timeless realities of Big Sur’s sea, sky,
and mountains. To feel emotionally and physically restored, healed, and cleansed. To rediscover
the lovingly creative inner resources of our own
music, poetry, and prayer. To feel ready again to
face whatever comes next in our lives.
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
“Together we will create a mood of sanctuary
and a time to be met by kindred spirits. The
approaches utilized will be drawn from a wide
variety of practices aimed toward physical, emotional, and spiritual attunement in order to
restore our gratitude and appreciation for being
alive.”
Yoga for the “Yogically Challenged”
Deborah Anne Medow
If in the past you avoided yoga classes because
you were “of a certain age,” you were just too
stiff, or you didn’t have a “yoga body,” this yoga
workshop is designed with you in mind. In this
program-for people who ordinarily wouldn’t be
caught dead doing the “corpse pose”-participants
are gently guided through breathing exercises
(purifications), meditation, asanas (yogic body
postures), and the coordination of breath and
movement within the asanas. Additional
emphasis is on yogic philosophy and theory.
With regular practice, yoga can strengthen,
rejuvenate, and help heal the body. It can also
calm the emotions, focus the mind, and uplift
the spirit.
This workshop lays the foundation for a yoga
practice that can be continued at home.
Although the workshop is intended primarily
for the more “yogically challenged,” everyone is
welcome. With Big Sur’s coastal beauty, and the
power and spirit of the Esalen land, it is easy to
fall into the natural rhythm of practicing yoga.
What better way to spice up your winter doldrums and turn towards the spring; program
something positive into your life: a yoga practice.
Please bring a yoga mat, an open heart, and a
good sense of humor.
Week of February 6–11
Dreamgates: A Journey to the
Multidimensional Self
Robert Moss
“During this high adventure in active dreaming,
you’ll be encouraged to remember and live the
deeper story of your life,” says Robert Moss.
“You’ll find confirmation of things you may have
glimpsed in half-forgotten dreams: you are here
in this world on a mission; you had a life before
you were conceived; you’ll have a life after death.
The events and situations you encounter in
physical reality have their genesis in a deeper
order of reality that indigenous peoples call the
dreamtime, and you can learn to go there consciously.
“You’ll be shown practical ways to bring energy,
guidance, and healing from a deeper reality into
everyday life. You can discover how to project
consciousness safely beyond the body, how to
open gates between the worlds—and how to
close them when necessary. You’ll see how to
travel, wide awake and dreaming, to true cities
of the imagination, and other places of instruction, adventure, and healing, and how to read
the signs of everyday life as a set of dream symbols. You’ll be invited to meet your counterparts
in other realities, and rise to the knowledge of
the higher self. This program is an invitation to
become a full citizen of the multidimensional
universe.”
Required reading: Moss, Dreamgates.
Recommended reading: Moss, The Three “Only”
Things and Conscious Dreaming.
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Trauma, Attachment, Dissociation and
the Body
Pat Ogden & Kathy Steele, with Dyrian Benz
& JoAnna Chartrand
Traumatic experiences can alter psychological,
biological, and social realities of survivors. One
of the most pernicious disruptions is in the ability of traumatized individuals to form and maintain healthy relationships. Their attachment
styles often manifest as the simultaneous activation of, or alternation between, evolutionarily
prepared psychobiological systems of defense
and attachment. The habituated psychobiological system reactivity of individuals can be
changed through developing a stable, secure
therapeutic attachment and by the effective
treatment of traumatic events. The presenters
will explore neuroplasticity, the neurobiology of
trauma, and clarify the theory of structural dissociation of the personality, which is highly relevant for understanding and treating traumarelated attachment disturbances.
The integration of traditional psychotherapeutic
and somatic interventions will be explored and
illustrated through excerpts of video sessions.
This course is part of The Santa Barbara
Graduate Institute Certificate Program in
Relational Somatic Psychology. The Certificate
Program is inspired by the SBGI somatic psychology postgraduate academic curriculum and
consists of a rotating series of practice-oriented
and academically sound Relational Somatic
Psychology courses. For more information,
including special registration instructions, see
Special Programs, page 94.
love, and relate to sexual experience. Through
Gestalt processing, breath and body attunement,
felt-sense explorations, spontaneous imagery,
and partnered exercises, we’ll explore empathy
and mutual attunement, romantic love in longterm relationships, subtle facial cues and gestures that affect sexual interest, how insecure
love styles can become secure, and how to work
through differences in emotional needs and sexual desire.
mind for contemplation. A quiet mind brings
the physical body into its most efficient state for
optimum productivity, and therefore creates a
peaceful presence. Late afternoon sessions will
be restorative in nature and will include partner
work to assist students to find full awareness.
There will be time to enjoy the spirit and power
of the land and sea in the beauty of Esalen. A
minimum of three months yoga experience is
recommended. Please bring your own yoga mat.
An Introduction to Rolf Structural
Integration
Yoga: The Heart of Vitality and
Awareness
Debra Simpson
Explore the delicate balance between effort and
ease, and intensity and grace, that inspires and
opens the heart to greater vitality both on and
off the yoga mat. According to yogic philosophy,
we are composed of five layers called koshas. This
journey inward begins with the body, then
moves through energy systems (the chakras),
and emotional and mental layers, toward the
spirit of the heart.
The goal of this workshop is to enter the deeper
levels of awareness through the ancient practices of yoga applied to modern times. Students
are guided into sthira and sukha, stability and
comfort, through the morning practices of asana
(postures) and pranayama (conscious breathing)
to discover the middle path in all aspects of
being. Alignment foundations and dynamic
methods are applied during practice to quiet the
Edward Maupin
This workshop is an introduction to the principles of Rolf Structural Integration, especially
designed for body-therapy professionals.
Strongly influenced by his research in Zen
Buddhism, Ed Maupin considers the Rolf
Method a meditation on physical presence as
well as a physical therapy. This approach, based
on forty years of Rolfing practice, strongly
emphasizes movement, balance in gravity, and
receptive touch. The workshop will combine
regular movement classes with hands-on
instruction in the first three sessions of Ida
Rolf ’s original ten-session series.
Nonprofessionals are also welcome. Ed Maupin’s
book, A Dynamic Relation to Gravity, will be the
text for the workshop.
Required reading: Maupin, A Dynamic Relation to
Gravity.
Heart and Libido: Explorations in
Intimacy for Couples
Stella Resnick & Alan Kishbaugh
Beginning with the neuroscience of how our
pre-verbal past is programmed into the brain
and nervous system, we’ll see how the past is
present in the ways we form emotional attachments, handle stress in the relationship, convey
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DANIEL BIANCHETTA
Sometimes in an intimate relationship feelings
of love can drive sexual enthusiasm. Other
times, as a couple’s love grows stronger, one or
both may find interest in sex has diminished.
The focus of this seminar is on the interaction
between emotional attachment and sex drive,
and the qualities of connection that can limit or
enhance love and desire.
Finding Your Deepest Purpose
Rich Berrett
We often live our lives without awareness and
presence to the way we are living. It is as though
our lives are living us rather than we living our
lives. Finding emptiness in our accomplishments may manifest this state of being. Degrees,
monetary wealth, success, status, all can leave us
asking, Is that all there is? Joseph Campbell recommended, as the most significant purpose of
living, that we seek our bliss. Most spiritual traditions affirm the importance of service to others as a purpose in life. This week offers time to
explore that which is all too often unexplored,
and that which is deeply satisfying: purpose that
honors self and others.
This experiential workshop includes guided
meditation, movement, art, reflective writing,
Gestalt practice, and music to help you contact
and express your deepest desires. By listening to
that inner wisdom you can become more present to who you are underneath the thoughts
and patterns of living with which you are most
familiar. Moreover, an understanding of how
our lives have the potential to support the worth
and dignity of all, and make a significant difference in a troubled world, will affirm the place of
relationships in a purposeful life.
Recommend reading: Tolle, A New Earth:
Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose; Kornfield, The
Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of
Buddhist Psychology.
Finding True Love
Daphne Rose Kingma
“Love is the experience of emotional and spiritual awakening to the bliss that is the true condition of the soul,” says Daphne Rose Kingma.
“Love is an essential human quest and intimate
romantic partnership is love’s most luminous
expression.” Join this best-selling author and
expert on matters of the heart, for an immersion
into the spiritual and emotional preparations
necessary to attract love into your life. Focusing
on the four keys to true love—Faith, Intention,
Trust, and Surrender—Daphne guides you on a
step-by-step journey to self knowledge that can
liberate your heart.
As you move through each process, including
resolving emotional issues from your past, healing
relationship wounds, examining your myths
about relationships, and identifying your life
theme (and discovering its effects upon your past
relationships), you can discover your own internal
barriers to intimacy and gradually release them.
This workshop is for people who are looking for
a love in the highest and deepest form, for those
who want to heal the pain of old unresolved
relationships, and for those who can’t seem to
bring themselves into alignment with the love
that is already waiting to approach them.
Activities include meditation, exercises, and
group process.
Recommended reading: Kingma, Finding True
Love.
Love, Sex and Intimacy:
For Individuals and Couples
Charlie Bloom & Linda Bloom
Intimacy is to the soul as food is to the body. We
are nurtured and enriched at the core of our
being in the experience of deep connection.
When the longing for intimacy is satisfied we
experience wholeness and sufficiency, we are at
one with ourselves and the world. In conjunction with a sexual connection, the experience of
intimacy can be exhilarating, inspiring, even
transcendent. The shadow side of this connection is the fear of intimacy, which is actually the
fear of loss, rejection, shame, or humiliation.
These fears are common, even universal, yet
their presence need not prevent us from experiencing the joys of intimate contact. It is not so
much a matter of getting over these fears or concerns, but of skillfully responding to them.
How do we maintain an open heart in the face of
powerful emotions? How can we redirect and
intensify the energy contained within these feelings toward states of heightened awareness?
How can we open to the full range of feeling that
enters into our experience during these times?
Confront these and other questions that directly
relate to our ability to dive fully into the bottomless pool of our heart’s truth, and feel love in all
its physical, sexual, and spiritual splendor. This
course presents ways of understanding and neutralizing patterns that limit intimacy and offer
practices to deepen and enhance it. Participants
also explore the inner landscape that exists
beyond intimacy, that territory of the heart
where the deep connection of “two” becomes
the transcendent “one.”
Salsa Rueda: Celebrating Love
John Harris
In this invigorating and joyous workshop students will learn basic salsa steps, turns, and
sequences before forming a salsa wheel or
“Rueda” as it’s known in Spanish. The Rueda
begins with all the couples forming a circle and
a “caller” announcing frequent partner changes
and a variety of steps. The success of the Rueda
requires that each and every member in the
salsa wheel plays his and her own part, interacts
with every other person in the circle, and contributes to the greater whole. During the workshop the five C’s of Salsa Rueda will become
apparent: cooperation, coordination, collaboration, communication, and contact. These make
this simple and enjoyable dance an excellent
metaphor for inspired communication and relationships where love flows and blossoms. John
Harris will draw on his knowledge of systemic
life coaching and social and intimate systems to
create a safe and appropriate learning environment where group members can celebrate the
joy of being together as a group and the love
that emerges when a group works together successfully toward a common goal.
In addition to a focus on the five Cs, students
will be introduced to four naturally-occurring
and universal orders or forces that influence systems: belonging, place, history, and exchange.
These, according to German family systems
therapist Bert Hellinger, exist in systems where
the emergent quality is love. No previous dance
or salsa experience is necessary, and no partner
is required. For more information, visit
www.morethanadance.com.
Feldenkrais® Spinal Awareness for
Yoga, Bodyworkers and Everyone
Patrick Douce
Spinal awareness is a combination of the
Feldenkrais Method®, Taoist energetic science,
and the Esalen experience. In this workshop,
participants will experience movements that
help bring new awareness as well as maintain
health and assist in the rehabilitation of pain,
tension, stiffness, limitation, and injury. Spinal
Awareness focuses on relaxing, integrating, and
developing a new relationship with the spine
and the whole body.
The use of joy and humor will be the undertone
of this weekend. Real freedom in the body is
also freedom of spirit and fun.
Lessons adapted from Indonesian Silat originating from the monasteries of China and Tibet
27
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
will be shared which greatly expand the scope
and effectiveness of each session. The concepts
of grounding, extending, generating, protecting,
circulating, and efficiently using our energies
will be experienced. The energetic components
of life and movement will greatly affect participants’ yoga and bodywork practices.
their needs that will help in their improvement
and often healing.
Safe, non-invasive touch lessons will be used to
help in the understanding of our spines.
Focusing on the actual bones, muscles, nerves,
and energy of the spine, participants will be
given a new, relaxing, healing experience of
themselves. Lively partner lessons will add to
the learning and the freedom to be experienced
in our bodies.
Deborah Anne Medow & Rob Wilks
Increasing awareness and fluidity in the spine,
students will find new ways of being sensitive to
and improving their yoga and other abilities.
The improved flexibility and awareness will
greatly strengthen whatever discipline you practice.
Those people with chronic or acute tension,
stress, stiffness, or pain will find tools specific to
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Heart to Heart: Esalen® Massage for
Couples on Valentine’s Day
Give your significant other or good friend a
wonderful Valentine’s Day gift of touch. Enjoy
the serene beauty of Big Sur as you and your
partner learn to give each other an effective
Esalen Massage. A tender touch can do wonders
for any relationship by easing stress, releasing
tension, and deepening nonverbal communication skills. Emphasis will be on listening with
both your heart and hands, asking for what you
need, and taking the time to truly nurture yourself and your partner. Sessions will include basic
quieting exercises, movement, brief demonstrations, hands-on guidance, and plenty of time for
practice.
This weekend of mutual giving and receiving is
for those of you who wish to learn the essential
elements of Esalen Massage and share a lovely
experience with your partner. Come for a pleasurable time of relaxation, renewal, inspiration,
and reconnection with your partner. Soak in the
healing waters of the natural hot springs and
enjoy the magical beauty of the Esalen grounds.
It’s a magnificent way to celebrate Valentine’s
Day weekend. No prior massage experience is
necessary. Please bring an open heart, your
favorite CDs for massage and/or dancing, and a
good sense of humor.
Month of February 13–March 13
28-Day Esalen® Massage Certification
Program
Brita Ostrom, Dean Marson & Tom Case
Please see the full program description in
Trauma First Aide™:
Working with the Unseen Wounds
Geneie Everett
Trauma First Aide™ (TFA) is a short-term intervention model based on the understanding that
all humans have similar nervous systems that
modulate responses to high stress and traumatic
situations. TFA teaches useful skills to quickly
reduce symptoms of traumatic stress and stabilize the nervous system in high arousal and
urgent situations. The goal of TFA is to reduce
and prevent long-term effects of trauma and
build resilience in the nervous system.
Current research shows that trauma contributes
to more than mental health problems. The physical syndromes range from cardiovascular to gastrointestinal to autoimmune disease. TFA
bridges physiology and psychology, and is used
by therapists, nurses, physicians, teachers, military, first responders, clergy, disaster workers,
and massage therapists. Topics covered include:
background research, the nervous system’s role
in trauma, basic brain divisions and functions,
trauma’s effects on learning, the role of memory
in trauma, plus ample time for building skills
and practice. Case studies will demonstrate
the breadth of TFA’s applications, and real-life
scenarios help develop skills for immediate use.
Within the safe setting of Esalen, we also will
spend time in deep discussion and personal
sharing.
Tango: More Than a Dance
John Harris
The purpose of this workshop is to authentically
engage with life via risk taking, relating, creating, impacting, and being impacted upon, all
within the context of learning tango, and supported by the facilitator’s knowledge of social
and intimate systems. At the core of dancing
tango lies the ability to allow the subjective
experience of another to meet with, and have a
positive influence on, our experience of self—
somatically, emotionally, and relationally.
In tango, this encounter is a metaphor for the
intimate relationships we are continually developing and deepening (or sometimes desiring) in
our lives outside the dance studio. Trust, respect,
mutuality, reciprocity, vulnerability, holding and
being held (both physically and psychological-
ly), teamwork, purposefulness, and play are all
components both of this elegant dance and of
intimate relationships. Therefore, tango, when
taught with relational dynamics in mind, can be
an arena for experimenting, for cultivating our
capacity for intimacy within a contained and
safe environment.
This workshop is appropriate for people with no
dance experience as well as for dancers who
want to explore intimacy and relationship while
improving their technique. Students will spend
a total of 23 hours in class. This includes one
group Cortical Field Reeducation® (CFR) session with a focus on moving gracefully, efficiently and effortlessly with Tango in mind. CFR is a
series of gentle and subtle but always intelligent
movements designed to promote the release of
deep muscular contractions and replace them
with freedom of choice and flexibility. For more
information, visit www.morethanadance.com.
Please note: Wear comfortable shoes with hard
leather soles and loose, comfortable clothing.
Career Transition: Four Acts of Courage
Seduced by Earth: Deep Imagination,
Soulcraft™ and the Dreaming of Nature
Bill Plotkin & Geneen Haugen
What if Earth is trying to seduce us for her own
purposes? What if our own deepest imaginings
and allurements are not only ours, but also
expressions of Earth dreaming through us? What
if humanity’s greatest visionary enactments originate in mindful participation with Earth and
cosmos? What if the wild child that became the
“human potential movement” was seeded by
Esalen’s sea cliffs, tides, hot springs, whales, and
great trees as much as by the far-seeing, creative
humans who have been drawn to Big Sur? What
if the wild blossom of your own most soul-rooted life could be pollinated by the wilder others
amidst whom we dwell at places like Esalen?
Some places on Earth seem to summon our
deepest emotion, expanded imagination, and
greatest sense of possibility—both for our individual lives and for the community of all beings.
By entering the landscape, we enter its imagination, its atmosphere, its story. In imaginative and
conscious engagement with place, we participate in the dreaming of Earth.
Mark Nicolson
Career transition and change happen again and
again over the course of our lives, but we rarely
allow ourselves the time to stop, pause, and
focus on what is changing in us and how to prepare for the next stage. What do I need to let go
of? What is the gift in not knowing what’s next?
What do I really want? What help do I need?
This workshop is for everyone in a career transition—whether you’re taking on new responsibility, anticipating a change, trying to identify a
new career, or ending an old one.
We will first explore the challenges we face during the three main phases of major transitions
(letting go, lost-in-the-forest, and reawakening).
The potential wisdom of each phase depends,
among other things, on the completion of acts
of courage. Each participant, using the principles and practices introduced in the workshop,
will select four unique acts of courage that support them in moving through their transition.
We will then introduce tools to map the vision,
capabilities, and relationship support for a
career worthy of our heart’s desire. Through
poetic inspiration and intimate dialogue, we will
create an atmosphere that is honest, respectful,
and nurturing. You will also be encouraged to
develop, or strengthen, a daily discipline that
enables an ongoing connection to creative
thought.
We’ll explore what Esalen’s wild sea, forest, and
canyons, gardens and creatures (human and
other) evoke in us, how they animate our dayand night-dreams. Practices we’ll use include
soul-oriented dreamwork, deep imagery journeys, council, poetry, trance drumming, and
dancing. We’ll encourage solo wanderings on
the land while engaging in soulcraft tasks
designed to feed the mystery at the core of our
lives. We will live the question: If Earth is
romancing us for her own purposes — very
much the way the nectar lust of bees serves the
desires of flowers — what wild child, what
honey, will we create from this joining?
Recommended reading: Plotkin, Soulcraft:
Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche and
Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness
and Community in a Fragmented World.
(Re)Writing Your Story
Elizabeth Rosner
Composing and revising personal stories can
serve as powerful tools for self-reflection and
transformation. This workshop is an invitation
to use the writing process as a means for unraveling and reinventing the stories of your life,
both on and off the page.
Invoking the spirit of play and inquiry, we can
uncover what has already been written inside
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ourselves, and also what has been hidden or disguised. Together we commit to expanding our
repertoire of words, images, memories, and
dreams. When you open to the sound of your
own voice, when you allow yourself to be heard,
the possibilities for healing and renewal are
unbounded. By listening to the language of your
inner song, you might rediscover a lost part of
yourself, or a self you have been longing to
encounter.
Beginners as well as experienced writers of all
levels are welcome. Whether you are interested in poetry, essay, fiction, or drama, our openended practice allows the form to be discovered along the way. These five days of writing
will focus on exercises designed to facilitate
the stages of unearthing and digging deeper,
with guidance through the revision process as
both a literal and metaphorical journey for
the self.
The Bridge Back Home: Buddhist Practices
Carry the Healer Back to Wholeness
Constance Hills
People who work in the healing arts are true
bodhisattvas (those dedicated to the cessation of
suffering for all beings). Yet, as living, breathing,
heart-beating sentient beings, they are at risk of
giving themselves away at the expense of their
own well-being. Healers often experience the
paradox of extending themselves to others and
feeling vulnerable to exhaustion and burnout.
Losing the way is an elusive process and sometimes laced with shame.
This is a Buddhist-inspired wellness retreat for
mental health professionals, health care
providers, chaplains, pastors, rabbis, caregivers,
and other healers who would like to find their
way back to wholeness through a fresh lens. The
instructor will engage participants in Buddhist
healing practices that have been known to
restore the mind and body for centuries. To slow
down the mind, the instructor will lead silent
sitting meditation sessions from a vipassana orientation, which can restore energy. No prior
meditation experience is necessary. Other practices include walking meditations, body-scans,
and healing with light meditations that can connect participants deeply with their physical bodies. The instructor will give case examples of
how mindfulness practice, compassionate care,
and self-protection rituals can inform professional work with clients. Group discussions will
follow. The practices taught in this workshop
can become a foundation that participants bring
home to their personal and professional lives.
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Bring your own meditation cushion if you have
one.
Develop Your Romantic Intelligence
Frances Verrinder & Michael Griffith
Many people have suffered from emotional disruptions in early family relationships that make
it difficult to feel safe in intimate relationships,
and challenging to develop rewarding long-term
romantic partnerships as adults. Drawing from
attachment theory, family systems, expressive
arts, somatic awareness, Gestalt practice, and
mindfulness meditation, this workshop is
designed to help you:
• Identify your attachment issues
• Become aware of trauma-based responses,
ambivalence, and avoidance
• Identify fear, physical constriction, and body
language that send non-verbal stay-away
messages
• Demystify the process of approaching and
feeling close to others
• Develop flexible boundaries, and learn
assertiveness and self protection
• Improve dating and relationship skills
• Cultivate healthy entitlement
• Recover a strong sense of self and self-love
• Reach past doubt, fear, and shame to develop
your inner and outer resources for taking risks
and seizing opportunities to connect deeply to
others
The workshop includes experiential small group
work, mini-lectures, and guided group discussion in the process of developing romantic intelligence so that you may begin to move into the
world of successful relationship.
Recommended reading: Goleman, Social
Intelligence.
Practical Gladness—Glad No Matter
What: Has Happened, Will Happen,
Might Happen
SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy)
If you sometimes fear loss and change, and
could discover how to more easily transform
them into the gifts and opportunities that they
really are, wouldn’t you want to?
In this joyful and nourishing workshop, you can
transform yourself and your thinking, and tune
into a higher vibration for your life. Being glad
no matter what is not about feeling glad when
you really don’t (how annoying!). It’s about finding the glad parts in all of your feelings, and feeling glad more often, and living in the messy,
marvelous middle—not the extremes. Wake up
your intuitive wise self and see how much that
part can do for you.
The workshop includes:
• Mentoring and being mentored by other wise
souls
• Learning to receive and give uncommon
support
• Exploring specific concrete solutions to
challenges
• Practicing self-love and exquisite self-care
• Creating more time, money, and love using the
micromovement wheel process
Bring your glad heart, your splendidly imperfect
self, and willingness. You can leave with buoyancy,
significant new directions, and love.
See Seminar Spotlight, page 8.
Relationships: The Courage to Begin
Mary Goldenson
For one human being to love another: that is perhaps
the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate test
and proof, the work for which all the other work is
but preparation.
—Rilke
Life is a precious gift. We have all experienced
moments of feeling totally alive, especially within our relationships. When beliefs, defenses,
fears, and emotions from the past enter into our
present-day relationships, we lose our ability to
feel love, trust, and joy.
The goal of this workshop is to experience these
restrictive patterns and to create new ways to
relate to ourselves, others, and our work, thus
enabling us to create new beginnings. This
workshop can help you:
•
•
•
•
•
Find out how your relationships mirror you
Clarify what you want and how to get it
Examine ways you sabotage yourself
Learn more about how others see you
Learn practical tools and knowledge that will
help create empowered relationships
In a supportive and safe environment, experiential exercises will help you become more adept
at listening, empathizing, truth-telling, creative
problem solving, and taking responsibility to
create the relationships you want. Come alone
or with a partner. The workshop will draw from
Gestalt, Reichian work, dance, imagery, and
meditation.
Recommended reading: Goldenson, It’s Time—
No One’s Coming to Save You.
Qigong and Inner Alchemy: Inner Elixir
and the Practice of Pure Radiance
Roger Jahnke
No matter what form of spirit/mind/body cultivation you choose—yoga, qigong, or tai chi—the
essentials of deepening your practice are not
actually based in the form. Personal cultivation
(qigong) is not merely a set of techniques; it is a
way of being whose roots tap entire worlds of
wisdom, including Traditional Chinese
Medicine, Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism,
ancient quantum systems, and the transcendental shamanic realms (Dancing Wu Li Masters).
will explore the Secret of the Golden Flower, a
highly refined form of traditional “elixir alchemy” renowned for its merging of Taoism,
Confucianism, and Buddhism. The most profound medicine for the spirit/mind/body is produced within us and this elixir is the light of
spirit within.
This workshop begins by exploring a simple dao
yin qigong called Vitality Enhancement
Method, a self-healing, medical qigong to use
personally and share with family, friends,
patients, clients, and colleagues. Then, drawing
on the ancient Tao Te Ching, we will cultivate the
great “Way” using qigong methods including
Natural Flow Qigong and the Nine Phases of
Mastery. Through this process, we can cultivate
golden elixir, the medicine within. Finally, we
Health professionals, beginning students, and
those who seek healing are welcome, as are
experienced qigong, tai chi, and yoga practitioners and teachers. For more information, visit
www.FeeltheQi.com.
Recommended reading: Jahnke, The Healer
Within and The Healing Promise of Qi.
Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy:
A Clinical Model for Exploring Desire
and Intimacy
Gina Ogden
Health, wellbeing, and intimate relationships
are profoundly affected by sexual issues. Yet
most health professionals lack training to help
their students, clients, and patients negotiate
sexual choices in safety and with pleasure. This
training for health professionals brings an
expanded consciousness to the practice of sex
therapy. Based on a spiritual template, it offers
an innovative model for exploring a wide range
of clients’ sexual stories, and provides opportunities for case consultation about desire, gender
identities, sexual orientation, pleasure, dysfunction, aging, abuse, affairs, polyamory, and more.
The weekend is structured to encourage personal awareness as well as clinical questions and
networking opportunities.
HANNS BECKER
Topics covered will help health professionals to:
• Describe a view of sexual intimacy that
includes physical sensation, emotional
passion, cognitive discernment, and spiritual
longings for connection with self, partner, and
the universe
• Articulate distinctions between sex with a goal
of performance, and relational sex that focuses
on pleasure
• Identify cultural messages that create a gender
gap in sexual attitudes
• Discuss beliefs and stereotypes surrounding
sexuality and age
• Practice (and teach) strategies that address hotbutton issues such as masturbation, sexual
orientation, and affairs
• Practice (and teach) strategies to relieve the
destructive effects of sexual abuse and control
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This training is designed for physicians, nurses,
social workers, family therapists, sexuality therapists, school counselors, and anyone working
with students or clients for whom sexual issues
may affect health, empowerment, or safety.
Recommended reading: Ogden, The Heart and
Soul of Sex, The Return of Desire, and Women Who
Love Sex.
Applied Zen: Creating the World
Around Us
Ji Hyang Padma & Rizwan Virk
Every thought affects the world around us. In the
thirteenth century, Zen Master Dogen wrote
about this using the metaphor of water: “Some
see water as the seven treasures or a wish-granting jewel; some see water as a forest or a wall.” In
what we choose to see and how we frame it, we
create the world around us. By choosing to focus
on mindful awareness, we can respond to stimuli
rather than react, and thus develop resiliency and
create positive outcomes. This is tangible; it
begins with ordinary people and their own mindfulness practice, through which we return to our
original luminous awareness, like clear water.
This course combines Zen practice with creative
approaches that support mind/body health to
discover inner resources and create positive outcomes in everyday life. Activities include Zen
practice, kido (chanting meditation), and personal journey work. Using techniques from Riz
Virk’s book, Zen Entrepreneurship, we will explore
how to bring the creative process into the flow of
work, through leadership that is aligned with the
rhythms of life. We will also use group journeys,
sacred ceremony, and metta meditation to harness the power of group consciousness for the
purposes of personal and societal transformation.
Recommended reading: Chodron, Comfortable
with Uncertainty; Moss, Dreamways of the Iroquois;
Virk, Zen Entrepreneurship.
Awakening Creativity and Inspiration
Jayson Fann
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
—Rumi
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the
mysterious. It is the true source of all art and science.
—Albert Einstein
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Jayson writes: “This workshop is for those wanting to immerse themselves in a week of abundant
creativity. Silk painting, clay sculpting, mask
making, mosaic, and print making are some of
the media we will explore to entice what lies
beneath in the ocean of your imagination.”
What makes this workshop special is the opportunity to work with guest artists who will share
their knowledge in a variety of artistic approaches and mediums that are accessible and enjoyable. The workshop is structured to provide the
guidance, the materials, and a supportive environment for you to awaken and explore your
creativity and artistic passion. For added inspiration, there will be live musical accompaniment
woven throughout the workshop.
Mindful Self-Compassion:
Core Skills Training
Christopher Germer & Kristin Neff
How would you feel if somebody told you that
you were average—average looking, of average
intelligence or average talent? In our competitive culture, your feelings would probably be
hurt.
That’s a natural response, but what would happen if you let yourself simply be human, with
no need to excel, just be okay. What would happen if, when you noticed you were less than perfect, you were as kind to yourself as you are to
others? How do you typically respond to life’s
problems, like work pressure, illness, or rejection? It’s so easy to become overwhelmed with
emotion in tough situations and to start battling
against what you’re feeling, and against yourself.
What would happen if you comforted and
soothed yourself instead?
This workshop provides simple tools for
responding in a kind, compassionate way whenever you suffer, fail, or feel inadequate. These
tools are essential steps toward living a happier,
more fulfilling life. You’ll be taught how to:
• Stop being so hard on yourself
• Handle difficult emotions with greater ease
• Motivate yourself with kindness rather than
criticism
• Transform your relationships, both old and
new
• Practice mindfulness and self-compassion
exercises for everyday life
• Be your own best teacher
Two psychologists lead this condensed version
of their eight-week Mindful Self-Compassion
training program. It’s a weeklong dive into
mindfulness and self-kindness supported by the
beautiful Esalen campus. All are welcome.
Recommended reading: Germer, The Mindful
Path to Self-Compassion; Gilbert, The
Compassionate Mind; Brach, Radical Acceptance;
Salzberg, Lovingkindness.
The Art of Yoga
Sarah Mata & Debbie Mills
The art of yoga lies within the power of relationship. There is a subtle dance in the relationship
of exhaling and inhaling, forward and backward
bending, movement and stillness, sound and
silence—between what changes and what stays
the same. Engaging all aspects of ourselves,
these ancient, integrative practices offer a timehonored path to embody our radiance in the
present. Within the experience of our bodies,
our minds can be brought to a state of calm; as
we deepen awareness of our breath, contemplation deepens. In time we can reveal the link of
our heart with the essence of the yogic aspiration, which is to be in your life and meet the
promise of it with open arms.
“In this practice,” Sarah Mata writes, “we will
explore the interrelationship between body,
mind, breath, sound, and silence. We will draw
upon the ancient prayer to the light, the Gayatri
Mantra, to structure a complete practice that
weaves dynamic asana (vinyasa) and still postures, breathing practices (pranayama), and simple sounds (mantra) with the intention (bhavana) to arrive at the point of contemplation. It
is within the relationships among all of these
dimensions of practice that we become rooted
and free.” Please bring your own yoga mat.
Recommended reading: Ramaswami, The
Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga.
The Way of the Shaman:
Nature, Power and Healing
Nan Moss & David Corbin
To the shaman’s eyes, the world around us is
alive and inspirited. In this introduction to core
shamanism, you can learn to see with those eyes,
explore the hidden worlds, and access the timeless wisdom known to our ancestors.
Through initiation into the shamanic journey,
you will be taught skills of divination and healing, and can experience the shamanic state of
consciousness to help awaken spiritual awareness. You will be provided methods for journeying to discover and study with your own spiritual teachers in non-ordinary reality, a classic step
in shamanic practice. You will also be shown
how to restore spiritual power and health and
how shamanism can be applied in daily life to
help heal yourself, others, and the planet.
There will be opportunity for advanced work
with the spirits of nature in Esalen’s beautiful
and powerful setting. By learning from the rocks
and mountains, wind and waters, and from sun,
moon, and stars, shamans helped their peoples
live in harmony with the universe. In a world
out of balance, the way of the shaman can teach
us once again how to respect nature, the earth,
and its inhabitants at a deep spiritual level.
This workshop includes two Foundation for
Shamanic Studies courses: The Way of the
Shaman, and Shamanism and the Spirits of
Nature. After completing this workshop, participants are qualified to take advanced trainings with
Michael Harner and the faculty of the foundation.
Please note: Bring a rattle or drum (if you have
one), a bandanna, and a pen and notebook to
record your journeys.
Recommended reading: Harner, The Way of the
Shaman.
The Return of Desire: Opening Our
Hearts, Trusting Our Bodies, Enriching
Our Lives
Gina Ogden
The route to sexual pleasure and intimacy is like
the route to any other of life’s deep mysteries.
It’s an exploration of new emotional landscapes.
It means opening your wild, precious, vulnerable self to nature, divine presence, and the profound wisdom of your body. It means daring to
know what you want. During this workshop for
women of all ages and sexual and spiritual orientations, we’ll create a safe, confidential environment where you can learn innovative ways to
create heart-to-heart communication, expand
your capacity for love, creativity, and compassion, transcend guilt, shame, and “good-girlsdon’t” messages, and heal the sexual wounds of
violence, abuse, and compulsivity. We’ll merge
the latest research with women’s stories, sacred
ceremony, shamanic journeying, and play in the
Esalen baths. Our work together is based on
four principles:
• Sex is energy—and in this culture we
experience only a tiny fraction of our sexual
potential
• The core power of sexual connection is its
ability to transform our lives—at any age, with
or without a partner
• Erotic satisfaction begins with self-esteem
• A supportive circle of women sharing
information about sex can be life changing
Please bring two objects to place in our circle,
one to represent an aspect of your sexual story
you want to keep, the other to represent an
aspect you want to move beyond. We’ll introduce ourselves with these objects, and you will
take them home with you.
Recommended reading: Ogden, The Heart and
Soul of Sex, The Return of Desire, and Women Who
Love Sex.
Cinema Alchemy: Using the Power of
Movies for Healing and Transformation
Birgit Wolz
Movies affect us powerfully because the combined impact of music, dialogue, lighting, camera angles, and sound effects enables a film to
bypass our ordinary defensive censors. Movies
draw us into the viewing experience, but at the
same time, and often more easily than in real
life, afford a unique opportunity to retain a perspective outside the experience: the observer’s
view. Cinema Alchemy teaches the art of watching films with conscious awareness, a form of
mindfulness practice. Several techniques
derived from spiritual traditions and transpersonal psychology will be introduced, and can
help us recognize aspects of our shadow selves
and latent capacities. This expanded awareness
helps us let go of unhealthy patterns and, consequently, reconnect with our authentic self and
spiritual essence.
Like dream work, inquiring into emotional
responses to movies can open a window to our
soul. Together we will build a bridge between
our realizations in “reel” life and our experiences in real life. How we relate to a film’s
archetypal motifs reveals our inner life. As we
examine reactions to the film, we avoid focusing primarily on the film or even the story.
Instead, we explore ways of watching favorite
films that connect us to our higher possibilities
long after this workshop ends. Additional
teaching materials are available for clinicians
who want to incorporate these methods into
their practice.
Rise Up Singing
Lisa Goettel
I want to sing like birds sing, not worrying about
who hears or what they think.
—Rumi
Singing offers a powerful way to connect more
deeply with ourselves and others. This workshop offers an opportunity to tease out our most
authentic expression, move energy, and make
music with no pressure; it is the simple joy of
singing together. Singers are invited to explore
the full potential of their voices through exercises and songs of many genres learned in the
round.
Lisa’s style is shaped by more than twenty years
of vocal training and teaching experience, and is
rooted in gentle and compassionate awareness
practices. She has been teaching singing classes
at Esalen regularly since 2007, facilitating a joyful alchemy of music, personal exploration, and
group connection. Deeply informed by Esalen’s
Gestalt teachings and the magic of her Big Sur
home, she shapes a container that inspires opening, challenges beliefs, and celebrates the human
spirit.
This workshop is designed for singers of all ages,
abilities, and experience. You don’t need to be
able to read music, or even think you can sing.
Come ready to explore your voice and tap your
spirit in a delicious and energizing way.
Soul Motion™: Alone, Together
Vinn Martí
“Consider the many benefits available when we
focus attention on an unequivocal acceptance of
the present moment in our everyday dance
world,” says Vinn Marti. “We relax in the dance
that is taking place. We move into a broader
view of acceptance and compassion. Our gratitude quotient skyrockets to levels not experienced before. We move graciously between
events, conditions, and experiences knowing
that no feeling or thought is final. We are at ease
with ourselves.
“In this weekend Soul Motion retreat, we
become familiar with points of view of conscious dancing that inform us. Alone, together,
we invoke a frequency of aliveness that alone,
together, hones our responses to magic, mayhem, and mystery in our everyday dance world.
“Soul Motion is a viewpoint of conscious danc-
33
ing that invites practitioners to listen to the still,
small voice singing throughout the body dance,
as well as the music in the room. Using dance
and music to engender awareness, we court sensitivity and presence without shame or judgment. It encourages practitioners to identify and
nourish the song they sing in the body choir of
expression and ecstatic release.
“You are invited to move body and soul, centered on an edge of aloneness, together with the
unique song that sings and dances you in the
everyday world.”
Realizing Dreams: Financial Planning
for Women
Susan Spraker
We all ask the question: Do I have enough money?
We worry, fret, argue, lose sleep, and even divorce
as we grapple with this question. Rarely do we
approach it methodically and find the answer.
This workshop is designed specifically for
women to unlock the mystery of where they are
now in their financial lives as it relates to the
bigger picture of their lives, and examine how
they got there. Participants discover money
beliefs, what they want to accomplish financially and why, and how to accomplish it.
Through didactic and experiential methods, participants will examine various financial profiles
and learn how they can empower themselves
through their money beliefs. We will examine
personal financial goals, income and expenses
before and during retirement, sample portfolios,
and asset allocation strategies. Discussions
include all areas of financial planning as well as
basic financial terminology. The goal of the
workshop is for each participant to have fun in a
safe, supportive environment to develop her
own personal financial outline that can be used
to create a complete and very workable financial
or retirement plan.
The workshop requires only an inquiring, open
mind, a desire to know thyself, and a willingness
to share financial information and work within
the group. Please bring a three-ring binder with
pockets, three-hole punched paper, pencils,
pens, and a calculator. You may wish to bring
copies of recent investment statements for your
own work.
Recommended reading: Breathnach, Simple
Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy; Metcalf
and Simon, Writing the Mind Alive: The
Proprioceptive Method for Finding Your Authentic
Voice; Eisenberg, The Number: What Do You Need
for the Rest of Your Life and What Will It Cost.
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Limitless Mind and the End of Suffering:
A Workshop in Remote Viewing
Russell Targ
Physicist/consciousness researcher Russell Targ
describes how we can surrender the story of
who we think we are and experience the end of
suffering. This path can provide direct experience of the peace, love, and spaciousness we all
seek—in fact, it is who we are. This workshop
blends the enduring teachings of the East into a
modern framework that emphasizes experience
over belief.
Buddha taught us to live a helpful and compassionate life, to surrender our ego to the peace of
spaciousness. His Middle Path was expanded by
the second-century genius Nagarjuna. Where
Aristotle taught that an idea is either true or
false, Nagarjuna demonstrated that most things
are neither true nor not true. The so-called complementarity of waves and particles in modern
physics supports this view, as does the indeterminacy theorem of Kurt Gödel. The modern
physics of nonlocality and our own laboratory
experience with remote-viewing research all
show our potential for expanded awareness.
Targ, cofounder of the Stanford Research
Institute’s psychic research program, will
describe the evidence for extrasensory perception, precognition, intuitive diagnosis, and distant healing. The program will teach participants how to recognize the psychic signal, how
to separate it from the mental noise of memory,
imagination, and analysis, and why we should
bother with ESP. Finally, there will be individual
lessons in remote viewing (as in the successful
Stanford program) and discussion of how this
awareness can lead to a discovery of who we
really are.
Recommended reading: Targ, The End of
Suffering: Fearless Living in Troubled Times,
Limitless Mind: A Guide to Remote Viewing and
Transformation of Consciousness, and Miracles of
Mind: Remote Viewing and Nonlocal Awareness.
Week of February 27–March 4
Not For the Feint of Heart:
Be Bold in Your Personal Growth
Mariah Fenton Gladis
If you’re “feint of heart,” you avoid confronting
the emotional injuries or habits that prevent
you from enjoying life to the fullest. You feint
this way and that, preserving the status quo
instead of moving past obstacles. This workshop
is not for the feint of heart—nor the faint of
heart. It’s for people who have a passionate commitment to creating healthy relationships within healthy lives. It offers opportunities to benefit from intensive individual healing work,
which may involve emotional injuries rooted in
the past, recurring themes or patterns of dysfunction, or personal longings in the here and
now. Whatever the content of your work, this
workshop helps you:
• Discover the issues that are immediately
obstructing the quality of your life
• Learn contact skills to authentically and
effectively express yourself and assure healthy
interaction with others
• Risk working deeply in an atmosphere of trust
and mutual support
• Expand your capacity for generosity and
compassion for yourself and others
The didactic and experiential sessions are particularly helpful for human-relations professionals
and those committed to a path of personal betterment. Mariah Fenton Gladis, known for her
effective and innovative use of music to enrich
the workshop experience, will blend individual
and group Gestalt work in an environment of
trust, compassion, and emotional generosity. A
twenty-nine year survivor of Lou Gehrig’s
Disease, Mariah speaks with what she calls her
“ALS accent.”
Recommended Reading: Gladis, Tales of a
Wounded Healer.
Soul Motion™: Begin Again
Vinn Martí
“Each time we gather to dance,” says Vinn Martí,
“we are poised at an open portal to divine presence. This presence takes notice each time we
use our body, heart, and mind to shape and shift
the forms and textures of its creation. Each one
of us occupies a unique vessel in which this
presence is able to manifest and know itself. Our
dance then becomes a vehicle to place our bodies and our souls in motion.”
Soul Motion is a movement ministry, designed
by Vinn Martí and devoted to the mystery and
passage in our everyday dance from the known
to the unknown. It presents method and strategy to relax into this nameless dance. Each of us
improvises steps in a dance of self-awareness
and unconditional acceptance of all things. The
CHARANJIT S JABBAL
practices promote open-minded, warmhearted,
and lithe body approaches to whatever is at
hand. Participants practice the dance above,
below, in front, and behind the beat, and speak
the creative voice of the unfamiliar.
flow that, if you are available to the energy of a
story, you find yourself in exactly the right place
at the right time, where serendipity, circumstances, and people all arrive to help the story
unfold.”
Says Vinn: “We will practice moving alone,
together, and in divine dialogue. We will allow
the inherent wisdom and memory of the body
to speak through us as movement, stillness, and
witness to the body-choir of dancers. We will
nudge the voice of our hearts ‘after years of
secret conversing to speak loudly in the clear
blue air.’ Through guided imagery and relaxed
induction techniques we will dive deep into the
body of the unconscious and resurface to ‘speak’
of our findings.”
Whether you are an emerging filmmaker, a seasoned professional, or just a movie lover, come
to the Esalen Video Project and experience a full
spectrum of filmmaking. Get inside the filmmaker’s world as you explore the art of low and
no budget digital filmmaking. Bella Shing, an
independent filmmaker, presents a complete
filmmaker’s workshop, from concept to directing, from shooting to editing. Through this
hands-on crash course, you can gain invaluable
experience of film and video as you make your
own media, whether it is narrative, non-narrative, documentary, art piece, or blog.
All are invited. All are welcomed.
Filmmaking Intensive
Bella Shing
“I believe that filmmaking is a highly metaphysical practice,” writes Bella Shing. “Especially
with documentary, I find that there is often a
Due to the size of the workshop, not everyone
will be able to shoot. Participants will be teamed
up into groups. If you want to shoot you must
bring a working digital camera and editing system, and basic knowledge of how to import your
video. Please contact bella@sweetermedia.com
with any questions.
Weekend of March 4–6
Getting the Love You Want:
A Workshop for Couples
Rick Brown
This workshop is designed to help couples
understand at a deeper level why they were
attracted to each other, why they get stuck in
endless power struggles, and how to safely begin
to work through those stuck places toward a
safer and more satisfying relationship. Couples
share only with their partner and are able to
maintain privacy. Couples are shown:
• New communication skills to break
destructive cycles of relating
• How to channel the energy from arguments to
create passion and stability
• How the unconscious forces that attract
partners to each other are also the source of
conflict
• New tools for re-romanticizing their
relationship to reestablish the passion of their
early time together
35
ing, compassionate, and enjoyable place to be. It
is a home to which you can always turn to
receive your own solace, support, and unconditional acceptance. This prepares your internal
environment to accept love from the outside,
and prepares you to arrive anywhere already
loved. Remember, when it comes to needing
love, you cannot expect more from someone else
than you are able to give to yourself.”
Join Mariah as she blends her unique style of
individual and group Gestalt work with her
effective and innovative use of music to enrich
the workshop experience. This workshop helps
you:
HANNS BECKER
• Realize that what’s inside is outside; you can
attract what you are
• Understand thinking as a personal
conversation with yourself
• Develop an active and rich inner dialogue
• Create an abundance of emotional resources
• Turn your meditations away from detachment
and separation, and toward intimate
meditation, by exercising Sacred Attachment
• How to use their relationship for emotional
healing and spiritual evolution
Activities include lectures, written exercises,
guided imagery, and live demonstrations of
communication skills and processes. Rick
Brown has been offering this workshop for over
twenty years, and has appeared on Oprah. The
methodology is based on Harville Hendrix’s
best-selling Getting the Love You Want. For more
information, visit www.rickbrown.org.
Please note: This workshop is for couples only.
($20 materials fee for manuals paid directly to the leader)
Revealing the Wisdom Within: Yoga
and Exercises to Relieve and Prevent
Low Back and Pelvic Dysfunction
inefficiencies and so move throughout our day
with greater consciousness and fluidity, ultimately opening, healing, and re-energizing ourselves.
Join Harvey Deutch, physical therapist and yogi,
for a weekend that focuses on spinal awareness
and mobility, with emphasis on the lumbar
spine and major joints systems of the lower
body. Through group discussion and pranayama
and Iyengar-influenced asana, you can discover
that sacred balance that arises from the convergence of core strength, flexibility, and the spiraling lines of energy within the body. In addition
to a yoga mat, please bring your curiosity and
desire to share in the group experience, compassion for honoring your body exactly as it is, and
a sense of humor.
Harvey Deutch
We live in a culture that extols constant productivity. From sunrise to sunset, we move at a
breakneck pace in order to meet the day’s
demands. Is it any wonder that we have distanced ourselves from the body’s signals of discomfort? Such signals may be a particular
chronic ache or perhaps a more abstract sensation of overall stiffness. This path leads to
decreased energy and an inability to embrace
each day with optimal vitality. But there is
another path. First we must unlock the mysteries of why and how our bodies hold onto
unhealthy movement patterns. Then we can
address and correct our bodies’ biomechanical
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Arrive Already Loved: Creating Sacred
Attachment with Yourself in the Here
and Now
Mariah Fenton Gladis
“Many people ask me how to have a fair shot at
developing a healthy relationship with another
human being,” writes Mariah Fenton Gladis. “I
advise them to arrive already loved. What does
that mean? It means the essential foundation of
being loved is to first love yourself. That doesn’t
mean a narcissistic pride, preoccupation with
self, or conceit. It does mean that the inner life
taking place in your body is a comfortable, lov-
A twenty-nine year survivor of Lou Gehrig’s
Disease, Mariah speaks with what she calls her
“ALS accent.”
Recommended Reading: Gladis, Tales of a
Wounded Healer.
Human Rights Activism: Joining the
Human Family of Doers
Jack Healey
“I invite you to discover how a simple vision and
a simple desire can achieve big things without
money or power,” writes Jack Healey. Healey is
the former director of Amnesty International
USA and the founder of the Human Rights
Action Center in Washington, D.C. “And I want
you to help with your stories. The first person to
help is yourself, but you cannot stop there.
Everyone in this world needs something we
may be able to deliver or send or organize: a
belief system that says if I have some, others
may need a part of it. That could be wealth, but
more importantly, the world’s suffering people
need your brain, your vision, your hopes, your
decency, and your stories. Warming the heart
with stories could unleash a new power in the
world, a new force not seen before: a drop of
decency into Darfur or help to Haiti that allows
them to eat a good meal from their own labor.
This workshop is my attempt to motivate participants to action. I hope I can help you see the
big picture of human rights abuses without getting scared or frozen by its brutality. I want you
to feel the family of doers and become one yourself.”
This workshop is energized with opportunities
to reach into other lives with empathy and
promised delivery—to have a better, clearer vision
of the future for your own action and deeds.
Getting Messy: Creative Process
and Social Change
Kim Hermanson
“When groups of any size come together in
meaningful ways for a shared purpose, there is a
larger wisdom available to draw upon, a wisdom
that lies within the heart of the group itself,”
Kim Hermanson writes. “In this experiential
workshop, we will use creative process and intuitive ways of knowing to explore the imaginal
world of the group itself. Using collage, painting, storytelling, metaphor, group process, and
the natural world as our tools, you will have
your own personal journey through creative
process, tapping into new avenues, skills, and
yearnings that you may not have been aware of.
As a group, we will create a sturdy container to
experience creative process as a vehicle for planetary transformation, deeply listening for what
wants to be birthed through us.
“Feel free to bring any of your favorite art supplies, along with a personal journal or writing
tablet. Also bring your current inspirations. This
workshop is highly recommended for those
involved in social change work, as well as for
artists and educators. Especially welcome are
those who ‘don’t have a creative bone in their
bodies.’ Finally, it will be valuable for those of
you who have been secretly holding a deep creative inner vision. Now is the time.”
Recommended reading: Hermanson, Getting
Messy: A Guide to Taking Risks and Opening the
Imagination.
Experiencing Esalen
Esalen Staff
We must answer anew the old questions. “What are
the limits of human ability, the boundaries of the
human experience? What does it mean to be a
human being?”
— From the 1965 Esalen Catalog
Experiencing Esalen is a workshop that introduces participants to some of the transformational practices of Esalen. Designed for firsttime participants or those renewing their
acquaintance with Esalen, the emphasis is on
finding those approaches to personal growth
that work most effectively for each participant.
Sessions may include: meditation, sensory
awareness, Gestalt Practice, group process, art,
movement, and massage. There will also be time
to explore the magnificence of the Big Sur coast.
Week of March 6–11
The Practical Art of Intelligent Risk
Taking: Soulful Life Skills
David Schiffman
To live with integrity and originality in an
increasingly challenging world requires a wide
variety of skills, capabilities, and attitudes:
soundness in judgment, originality in action,
and knowing when and how to act.
This workshop examines the essential components of making intelligent, creative choices.
The foundation of the curriculum lies in considering the risks we must take to make a life of
depth, meaning, and integrity.
Together we will consider:
• The impact of origins and ancestry on our
risk-taking style
• Conventional thinking versus kaleidoscopic,
emergent logic and multi-focal vision
• Intuition and imagination: The mutability of
consciousness, perception, and presence
• The art of recognizing and developing allies,
guardian angels, and supporters
• The judicious use of strength and dealing with
antagonists
• The soulful, energetic logic of improvisational
spontaneity and expressiveness
• The use of accurate appraisal and critical
analysis
• Affirmation and direction through oracular
and archetypal perspectives
• Fluency, intelligence, and adeptness as
measures for sound emotional expression
• Timing: The wisdom to know when and how
in manageable increments
• If at first you don’t succeed: Cultivating
persistence and emotional resilience
Together we’ll create a community based on
goodwill and mutual support aimed at developing risk-taking skills that minimize wasted time
and unnecessary suffering. It will be an opportunity for examining and creating your own
unique risk-taking style.
Painting from the Source
Aviva Gold
If you’ve considered painting but never thought
you could, or if you’re trained in the arts and
would like to explore your source of creativity,
this retreat is for you. As children, we naturally
paint in a powerful, intuitive way, purely for the
joy of expression. This freedom can be regained.
You face the empty paper, the rich, vibrant colors; you choose a color, you move your brush on
the paper. The process deepens; you may hesitate, emotions may surface. With Aviva’s expert
midwifery, in a warm, supportive atmosphere,
you begin to paint not from the intellect but
from the ever-present, bottomless creative well
of personal and universal images. Soon the
movement of the colors, the brush, and the
water is hypnotic—you get lost in it. Yet you are
awake, allowing whatever needs to happen to
happen…
Surprisingly touching and satisfying images
emerge. You don’t have to be trained to experience this, it’s your birthright—the possibility of
reconnecting is always there. To feel the sensuousness of painting, to let yourself play, to go
through whatever blocks you need to go
through—this ritual of creating soul-touching
art is a natural way to stay balanced, healthy, and
vital, a spiritual practice that will connect you to
your Inner Wisdom Source.
Please note: This workshop has an extended
schedule and requires a commitment to group
process and inner growth. No alcohol or nonprescription drugs during workshop.
Recommended reading: Gold, Painting from the
Source: Awakening the Artist’s Soul in Everyone
(available at www.paintingfromthesource.org).
Riding the Change: An Exploration
of the Perimenopausal Years
Jnana Gowan
“There is nothing like real change to knock you
off kilter; just ask a perimenopausal woman,”
Jnana Gowan writes. “For women in ‘the change,’
walking the line of imbalance becomes the practice. Riding the Change invites perimenopausal,
power-surging women to share the intensity of
this life-changing time and celebrate the initiation into a deeper intuition and a more creative
self. Yoga is one of the greatest things a woman
can do for herself in this time of immense hormonal, physical, and psychological fluctuation.
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We’ll do both rigorous and restorative yoga
designed to support and soothe as you ride the
hormonal roller coaster of the change.
Additionally, we’ll discuss and share midlife
issues, including evolving body image, and how
to surrender to physical/physiological changes
and shifts in perspectives as aging women. By
connecting with other women in this transition,
you can find a way to walk the road of perimenopause with support of others who are
walking with you. Using mindfulness and
breath work, we’ll connect to ourselves more
deeply and begin putting together a toolbox that
we can access as we lay awake at 3 a.m. while our
brain re-wires itself. All women go through this
amazing time and every woman has her story.
Come share yours.” This class is for all levels of
yoga, from basic beginner to the seasoned practitioner. Please bring a yoga mat.
I-You-Us: Pleasure, Intimacy and the
Search for Connectedness
Terry Hunt
This workshop is about healthy relationships—
in love, in friendship, in daily life. The focus is
on how to nurture our own vitality in situations
where we long for connections that are more
real, more safe, or more rewarding.
Pleasure is essential for healthy relationships.
Add the erotic element and the potential for
pleasure grows exponentially. But whether in
love or friendship, in same- or opposite-gender
relationships, the reality of sustaining delight in
one another is often a mystery and a struggle.
We substitute old avoidance patterns for intimacy as we play out the Good Girl and Super Guy
roles we developed during traumatic childhoods
and adolescences. Or we repeatedly act out of
fear, sadness, or rage, keeping our relationships
locked in the “cultural missionary position.”
Giving up carefully honed pain-avoidant habits
releases new energies for the pursuit of personal
fulfillment in relationships.
This workshop is designed to help you identify
myths that block the flow of joy. Terry Hunt
writes: “Together we will redefine the role of
pleasure in our lives and create updated images
of our sexual and sensual selves. We will explore
new language that more honestly communicates our desires. We will encourage each other
to approach our gender gaps with intention
rather than fear, assertion rather than suspicion.
We will follow our instincts for pleasure into
moments of wholeness.”
Come alone or with an intimate.
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Recommended reading: Hunt & Paine-Gernée,
Emotional Healing and Secrets to Tell, Secrets to Keep.
The Heart of Awakening
Miranda Macpherson
“In the depths of our heart lies a reservoir of
limitless peace, profound connection to the
whole of life, and real love capable of bringing
true fulfillment and freedom,” Miranda
Macpherson writes. “Yet commonly we live on
the surface of ourselves, busy trying to control
life to manifest our desires and keep away our
fears. We adapt to living in degrees of disconnection and dissatisfaction, yet what we truly want
is close at hand, once we develop the courage to
meet life with an undefended heart.
“Join us in sacred space as together we learn to
embrace our everyday grapplings and deepest
yearnings as the gateway to tasting that grace
that lives in us. Through greater contact with
our own depths, we discover the means to cut
through personal and collective suffering, and
meet the challenges of our times from greater
wisdom.”
Miranda Macpherson teaches and transmits a
unique synthesis of self-inquiry, spiritual psychology, and devotional and embodiment practices, in a tangible atmosphere of unconditional
love and transparency. The format is experiential,
including exercises in pairs, silent and guided
meditations, chanting, question and answer sessions, and chair work (satsang). Hers is an intelligent and contemporary approach oriented at
facilitating direct spiritual experience, and providing a practical foundation to unwind the patterns that shape our lives. Additionally, Miranda
will share her methods for ongoing spiritual
practice and embodied self-inquiry, which
encourage more substantial access to grace.
“In our investigation to the bone, the first thing
we will encounter is voice. How to create it.
Saying it wrong, saying it spoken rather than
written, saying it raw. By challenging old creative writing workshop language, we will investigate what my teacher called Burnt Tongue. The
New York Times, in its review of The Man Who Fell
in Love with the Moon, called it Poisoned
Lyricism. Character lies in the destruction of the
sentence. How a character thinks is how she
speaks. The class will be, as Annie Dillard has
called it, ‘alligator wrestling at the level of the
sentence.’ By studying sentences, by taking them
apart and looking at all their elements, by tuning them to how our particular narrator thinks,
and ultimately speaks, we can begin to create a
music that is unique.”
Recommended reading: Spanbauer, The Man
Who Fell In Love With the Moon, Faraway Places,
Now Is The Hour.
Chakras Actually: Consciousness,
Energy and Our Nervous System
Jim Kepner & Carol DeSanto
What does it take to bring spiritual consciousness into our daily life? How do we integrate the
wondrous states we experience in meditation,
yoga, and other practices? How can we make our
presence transformative and healing for others?
The leaders’ approach brings two essential keys
to unlocking these questions. First, it is through
our nervous system that chakra energies and
higher consciousness are embodied in our lives.
Second, a deeper understanding of the chakras
can open us to a more palpable experience of the
divine.
This workshop integrates Nervous System
Energy Work with the chakra system as a means
to accelerate our personal and spiritual development. Aligning the chakra energies with our
nervous system, where they can be clearly felt, is
deeply transformative.
Dangerous Writing
Our work includes:
Tom Spanbauer
• Learning to generate and identify the specific
energies of each chakra
• Using hands-on energy techniques to align
the chakras and open our nervous system to
carry those energies
• Incorporating an integral model to understand
and work with different levels of
consciousness
• Exploring meditations and practices with the
figure eight as a tool for a deeper connection
to the divine
“What makes writing dangerous is something
personal, very small, and quiet,” writes Tom
Spanbauer. “In this class we will be asked to go
to parts of ourselves where there is an old
silence, where it is secret, where it is dark and
sore. One of the goals of the class will be to go to
where we’ve never gone before, writing down
what scares the hell out of us. Eventually to the
very foundation and structure of how we perceive, and in this investigation, we can challenge
old notions of who we are.
• Integrating these processes with yoga,
breathing, movement, and other physical
exercises
No prior experience is required, but those who
have attended other workshops by the leaders
will find a whole new range of insight and practice.
Gestalt Practice: Exploring Emotion
Dorothy Charles
Experiencing and expressing emotions are integral to being alive. Yet, for many people emotions remain mysterious, confusing, and difficult to constructively express, especially those
that were unwelcome in our early environment.
As a result, relationships may be unsatisfying
and the choices we make may not reflect our
innermost desires or our true selves. Learning to
fully experience feelings and express them in
healthy ways enables us to be authentic and to
have more fulfilling relationships.
This experiential and didactic workshop will
blend individual and group Gestalt work with
dyadic exercises. Participants will experiment
with tracking emotions as sensations in the
body and learn to recognize them as signals calling for attention rather than problems to be
fixed.
Spiritual Massage and Shaman Ways
Maria Lucia Bittencourt Sauer
Journey to your inner world with Spiritual
Massage, shaman practices, and group healing
work. As you travel deeply within, discover the
old patterns engraved on different layers of your
energy body. These patterns hold stories and
emotions that keep you from being fully present
in the moment. By letting them go, you can
come alive.
It is a wonderful sensation to embark on this
inner search in a supportive group. Together we
learn and share all we have in common as we
build new and more joyful ways of being.
Spiritual Massage is a hands-on healing practice
that works directly on the energy body, can
cleanse old thought forms, and addresses emotional, physical, and spiritual blockages.
Working with emotions and feelings, we sit in
the circle and have the opportunity to express
ourselves. As we journey into the lower world,
we can bring our shadow into the light of consciousness so we can unify our self in all its
parts.
This workshop can be taken on its own or in
combination with Maria’s Spiritual Massage:
Lightbody Infusion five-day workshop, March
13-18.
Charu Rachlis
“We are living in the most accelerated time of
change in history,” Charu Rachlis writes. “The
challenge each of us faces is how to navigate
these changes with wisdom, creativity, and joy.
Yoga as an ancient art and science oriented
toward reducing suffering is the path that will
guide us in our time together. We will weave
together asanas (postures), meditation, pranayama (conscious breath), restorative poses, and
morning chanting to bring us to a state of openness and acceptance toward our inner self. In
times like now, there are huge opportunities for
growth, which we can see as evolutionary gifts.
Regardless of where we live, our station in life,
or the circumstances we face, if we embrace
what is unfolding before us as an evolutionary
gift, we will rise up in consciousness to a new
pattern of life. The daily practices during this
workshop will support us in opening to the new
alignments that are available as long as we surrender and invite ourselves to wholeness and
deep connection with the earth and the cosmos.
We will embark on a beautiful inner/outer journey that can prepare us to take on the joy and
responsibility to embrace sacred evolution.
Everyone is welcome. Please bring a yoga mat,
journal, and pen.
Healing Ourselves, Healing Our World
Opening Doors to the Creative Flow
Ocean Robbins
“In spite of, or perhaps in response to, the many
pressing challenges of our times, a movement is
afoot,” Ocean Robbins writes. “It is alive in the
hearts, spirits, and actions of millions of people
from every religious, economic, and cultural
background. This movement integrates inner
growth with social change, as we learn to bring
healing and consciousness to our lives while
working toward a thriving, just, and sustainable
way of life for all.
Creative expression is available, one way or another,
to anyone at every stage of life, in every culture, and it
is accessible at any time. We have only to learn to
access it and to use it openly and freely, by overruling
conventional, limited ideas about what is acceptable.
—Leigh Hyams
Opening Doors is a basic weekend art intensive,
an exuberant Art 101. No experience is required.
We will be using multi-media materials with
exercises that defy straight lines and standard
applications. The point here is for us to play
with color, shapes, and value through a variety
of media, exploring unusual ways to create with
acrylic paint, pastels and graphite. We’ll begin
each morning with some breathing exercises,
imagining the inspiration that comes with conscious breathing. Be prepared for fun.
HANNS BECKER
Sacred Evolution: A Yoga and
Meditation Workshop
If you know exactly what you are going to do,
what is the point of doing it?
—Pablo Picasso
“Whether we carry a full or a breaking heart,
whether our lives feel abundant or bereft, each
of us carries the capacity for love, and a need to
make a contribution in the world. What if each
of the histories, wounds, and blessings of our
lives has prepared us perfectly for our unique
part to play in healing? How then might we
serve?
“This workshop is for people who want to create
congruency between their lives and their values,
and who seek to grow in wisdom, faith, compassion, and freedom. It is a place to join kindred
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spirits on the path of healing and awakening,
and to explore how we can unleash all that we
have, and all that we are, on behalf of all that we
love.” Join facilitator and inspirational catalyst
Ocean Robbins to explore your stories, values,
healing journeys, and contributions. Using facilitated exercises, artistic and creative expression,
reflection, playful games, and the building of
heartful community, the group will open up the
links between journeys of internal, interpersonal, and global transformation.
Together we will share, as always, the blessings
of the ocean, the grounds, the baths, and the
food. Time to explore Esalen’s mission and
future vision with Esalen Trustees and its leaders will also be included.
arts. Participants will discover ways to remember the fearless play of childhood while letting
go of concerns about “abiding by the rules” or
“getting to the right answer/representational
image.”
Note: Participants will be asked to pledge a donation of at least $300 (or $25 monthly) or more to
support the profound work of Esalen. For more
information, please contact Nancy Worcester at
(831) 667-3032 or nancy.worcester@esalen.org.
Friends of Esalen Reunion
Students will identify specific aspects of the creative process that produce joy and explore ways
to infuse them more frequently into their art
making. Participants with diverse interests will
find ways to incorporate nonobjective abstraction (patterns, abstract designs, free-flowing
marks, or “visual jazz”) into their creative
process and final artwork.
David Schiffman, Bill James & Guest Teachers
Painting Improvisations:
A Visual Jazz Exploration
Joanne Beaule Ruggles
The performing and visual arts share a common
language and process. Visual artists can learn
valuable lessons from jazz musicians, whose creations depend on exploration, improvisation,
and collaboration. This workshop will lead participants through a series of visual exercises that
develop the skills needed for risk-taking in the
Recommended reading: Nachmanovitch, Free
Play: Improvisation in Life and Art.
CE credit for teachers; see page 113.
KIM QUINONES
Come and celebrate with fellow Friends who
share a deep and special love for Esalen. Our purpose will be to once again evoke the extraordinary range of visions, powers, gifts, and surprises
that Esalen can encourage. It is a chance to learn
from some of the best long-time leaders that
Esalen has to offer. Come and share—your Esalen
stories, transformations, and reminiscences. It
will be a time to be with kindred spirits, enjoy
music, massage, Gestalt process, meditation,
singing gestalt, and creative work in the Art Barn.
Whether your artistic interests fall in landscape,
figure, still-life, or abstract painting, there will
be something valuable for you in this workshop.
Each day, additional mystery materials will be
provided to participants for group activities. You
can view Joanne’s artwork at www.beaulerugglesgraphics.com.
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Spiritual Massage: Lightbody Infusion
Maria Lucia Bittencourt Sauer
that works directly on the energy body, balancing the chakras, cleansing old thought forms,
and gently facilitating release of emotional,
physical, and spiritual blockages. Born into a
family of healers with a generations-old tradition, Maria Lucia Bittencourt Sauer studied with
healers in her native Brazil, where Spiritism—
receiving healing knowledge from the spirit
world—is familiar to much of the population. In
1979 she came to Esalen and was sponsored by
Esalen cofounder Dick Price to learn Spiritual
Massage from Brazilian healer Luiz Gasparetto.
Maria presents practical methods for using the
hands as instruments of physical and spiritual
healing. Incorporating both hands-on and energetic work, Spiritual Massage emphasizes intentionality as the fundamental tool of any healing
art designed to move energy. The workshop
includes exercises for grounding and attuning
to energy as well as Afro-Brazilian shamanic
practices for self-protection. Special exercises
help prepare the group energy field for channeling sessions done by Maria Lucia (please bring
questions). Emotional release work and group
healing process are integrated as they emerge.
This work is accessible to anyone, including
nurses, bodyworkers, businessmen, counselors,
and all those interested in working with energy
and people’s bodies.
This workshop can be taken on its own or in
combination with Maria’s Spiritual Massage and
Shaman Ways weekend workshop, March 11-13.
Recommended reading: Kardec, The Spirits’ Book
and The Book on Mediums; Richelieu, A Soul’s
Journey.
Free Your Breath, Free Your Life
Dennis Lewis
The ever-increasing speed, stress, and disharmony of the modern world not only conditions us
to a way of living in which the future is often
considered more important than the present,
but also cuts us off from the immediate experience of ourselves as living, breathing beings. As
a result, many of us live as unconscious, breathless automatons, rushing faster than time itself
into an imaginary future, seldom present to the
mystery and miracle of our lives right now and
here. Our breathing is so constricted and incom-
plete that it undermines our health, vitality, and
consciousness. Such breathing also deprives us
of one of the great joys of living on this earth:
the expansive sensation of a free, easy, boundless
breath that engages the whole of ourselves and
opens us to the miracle of “the breath of life.”
Using ideas, insights, and practices from his
book, Free Your Breath, Free Your Life, Dennis
Lewis will take participants on a journey of presence into the physiology, psychology, and spirituality of natural, boundless breathing. You will
learn and practice the seven basic self-directed
ways of working with the breath: conscious;
controlled; focused; movement-supported; position-supported; touch-supported; and soundsupported breathing. Through safe, powerful
exercises—as well as through special movements,
postures, sounds, meditations, qigong practices
(Humming Breath Qigong), dialogue, and work
with presence—you will be shown how to integrate conscious, whole-body breathing into your
life to support your health and your quest for
self-realization.
Recommended reading: Lewis, The Tao of Natural
Breathing, Free Your Breath, Free Your Life, and
Breathe into Being.
Spiritweaves™ Emerge: Come into
Being through Evolution
Michael Molin-Skelton & Anneli Molin-Skelton
What shape waits in the seed of you to grow and
spread its branches against a future sky?
–David Whyte
“In this workshop, we will investigate through
movement how to receive what wants to break
through the surface of our lives,” the leaders
write. “As we navigate our capacity to be with
what arises, we will also explore how we withdraw from ourselves, from others, and from the
world. We will use the catalytic energies of the
5Rhythms® and Soul Motion™ movement practices to expand our awareness and our ability to
be present in our body, while we keep our hearts
open to what emerges. Our tendency is to hold
onto old structures and patterns well past their
date of expiration. Our intention is to release,
through movement, old structures that no
longer serve us, and find a space within ourselves for something new to take form.
“During our time together you will be encouraged
to dance with this unfolding invitation: What can
you offer to yourself right now to benefit and
bless the future self that you are becoming?
You need no previous dance experience. All you
need is a body that is breathing, a heart that is
beating, and a mind that is curious.”
The Intimate Couple: Integrative Body
Psychotherapy (IBP)
Jack Rosenberg & Beverly Morse
Trust, love, erotic sexuality, and a core experience of self are building blocks for a vital relationship. Yet, unless our bodies are awakened,
these remain elusive ideas rather than familiar
body feelings. Until we recognize the themes
that distort our views, cause our prejudgments,
and perpetuate old defensive patterns, it is difficult to trust or be trusted. For a conscious relationship, or even just one that works well over
time, we must know ourselves and have practical body-mind mental health tools to resolve the
inevitable dilemmas that interrupt our sense of
wellbeing.
Today, most couples want an equal and reciprocal
relationship, but few know how to accomplish
this attunement of partnership. Once you simultaneously experience the internal feeling of self
and attunement with your partner—and know
what gets in the way—you will know how you
got there and how to achieve it again and again.
Designed as a preventive model, this workshop
can help you uncover the key undermining
themes in your relationship and provide tools to
deal with them before they become terminal
problems. It will also provide tools for experiencing heightened aliveness, sustaining a sense
of self in the body, making sex better, and an
opening to existential/spiritual themes of intimacy and aging. With IBP, couples can learn
how to regain their hope and excitement.
Please note: This workshop is for couples only.
Recommended reading: Rosenberg & Morse,
The Intimate Couple; Rosenberg, Rand & Asay,
Body, Self, and Soul; Rosenberg, Total Orgasm.
The Profound Simplicity of Being
Present: A Gestalt Workshop
Alan Schwartz
In The Feeling of What Happens, Antonio Damasio
defines the human organism as “really a sense of
self about one moment—now—and about one
place—here.” This has been the Gestalt point of
departure at Esalen for more than forty years.
Using the three E’s of Gestalt: Experiment,
Experience, and the Existential, you can access
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the here-and-now as a personal foundation for
deepening strength and self-supports in the
uncertain present. In effect, we can increase stability as we face an equally uncertain future.
This process involves recognizing and experimenting with self as a breathing mechanism
within a structure of fixed patterns of behavior.
We work toward as much deconstruction of
these patterns (fixed gestalts) as possible to
allow deeper and truer contact with self and
with group members who, in all honesty, are
representative of family and others in our lives.
In addition to intrapersonal and interpersonal
processes, we address issues of body defenses
(armor). We can explore this rebuilding of selfsupports together. The new and the unexpected
in our lives can then become creative opportunities rooted in our compassionate presence.
There will be appropriate didactic work.
Love Yourself—For Everyone Else’s
Sake
Mark Abramson
This workshop directly challenges the confusion surrounding the issue of self-love. Self-love
is the most altruistic of all practices. When you
are free to be kind and loving to yourself, the
world and all the people in your life are
touched. This workshop is an experience of two
trainings taught at Stanford University Medical
Center. As director of Stanford’s MindfulnessBased Stress Reduction Program, Dr. Mark
Abramson has modeled his work after Jon
Kabat-Zinn’s program (featured on Bill Moyers’
PBS series Healing and the Mind). He has also
established a new program at Stanford called
“Love Yourself—For Everyone Else’s Sake.”
Incorporating the latest research on mind/body
medicine, this workshop introduces practices
that create a profound physiological wellbeing,
plus the heartfulness to transform emotional
states and unleash the great potential for deep
healing of the body. The goal is to learn how to
use the awareness and mindfulness practices to
experience your own love in a peaceful, healthy
body.
According to Mark Abramson’s studies, this
work has been shown to create an increasing
experience of gentleness, kindness, and respect
for oneself and others. While the practices are
especially helpful for people experiencing emo-
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tional or physical concerns, the universality of
the experience makes this program valuable for
all.
Got Rhythm? Develop Your Inner
Rhythm by Studying World Music
Matthew Montfort
Learn the real musical knowledge behind the
sacred music of the world. This workshop is
based on Matthew Montfort’s book, Ancient
Traditions—Future Possibilities: Rhythmic Training
through the Traditions of Africa, Bali and India.
Material from the book has been used by many
teachers and musicians around the world,
including Reinhard Flatischler, founder of the
TaKeTiNa rhythm training process, and Steve
Smith, jazz and rock drummer.
The workshop is presented in an easy-to-follow,
entertaining yet educational format for all
music lovers. African polyrhythms, Balinese
kotèkan and Indian classical music are the
source material for the workshop because in
combination they cover the major types of
rhythmic organization used in most of the
world’s music. Not just for musicians and percussionists, this workshop can help anyone
with a desire to improve their rhythmic skills.
Melodic aspects of the traditions are also
explored through vocal chanting and ensemble
performance in a supportive setting. The workshop is open to all levels, and no musical background is required. Very simple percussion
instruments are provided, and participants are
free to bring any percussive or melodic instruments they enjoy playing.
($55 materials fee paid directly to the leader
for Ancient Traditions-Future Possibilities
unless you already have a copy)
Succeeding With Your Soul Intact:
Lessons from Sustainable Business
Mavericks
Margot Fraser, Mike Hannigan,
Jeff Mendelsohn & Deb Nelson
This workshop can help you develop the art of
successful, values-based leadership. Through
interactive dialogues and exercises, explore ways
to create and grow the kind of organization
you’ve always wanted to work in—one that lets
you bring your values to work, is successful in
accomplishing its mission, and generates a
healthy profit. You will hear practical advice,
lessons, and confessions from visionary social
entrepreneurs who are members of Social
Venture Network, a San Francisco-based organization that supports a community of business
and social leaders to build a just and sustainable
planet. The group will share their stories and
insights throughout this interactive workshop,
and you will have the opportunity to schedule
one-on-one sessions with the presenters. This
workshop is open to established and emerging
business and nonprofit leaders, as well as those
in transition. It’s a great opportunity for those
interested in bringing more purpose, creativity,
innovation, and effectiveness into their professional lives.
The Samurai Game®
Alan Vann Gardner & Lance Giroux
The Samurai Game is a simulation game created
by human potential visionary George Leonard.
It is considered by thousands of people around
the world to be one of the most challenging and
unique team building and leadership experiences available. It promotes increased capacities
for communication, connection, listening, decision-making, leadership, and creating solid
teams and relationships. Informed by the nonviolent martial art Aikido, the Samurai Game
allows you to develop a heightened sense of the
vividness and value of life, greater understanding of your habits, and the importance of peaceful conflict resolution.
As you play, you can experience being 100%
committed to a given situation while at the
same time being fully and unconditionally supported no matter what you do. Deepen your
sense of personal integrity. Feel the dilemma of
loyalty to both yourself and your team. Gain
sharp new insights on habitual patterns of
behavior which may be interfering with your
success and fulfillment and how the notion of
accountability is personally held.
The workshop includes exercises derived from
Aikido in centering, relaxation under pressure,
manifesting personal power, and blending with
incoming pressure. While playing the game,
you’ll take on the role of medieval samurai warrior. Before and after the game there will be
ample time for reflection and dialogue so that
the workshop can inform how we may be more
effective and content as both a leader and a participant in our lives. For more information, visit
www.SamuraiGame.org.
Recommended reading: Leonard, Mastery: The
Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment.
Introduction to Gestalt Awareness
Practice
Yoga Ecstasy Spring Detox and
Rejuvenation Retreat
Christine Price
Micheline Berry
Gestalt Awareness Practice is a form—nonanalytic, noncoercive, nonjudgmental—derived from
the work of Fritz Perls, influenced by Buddhist
practice, and evolved by Richard and Christine
Price. The work integrates ways of personal
clearing and development that are both ancient
and modern. To the extent that awareness is
made primary, Gestalt Awareness Practice has a
strong relationship to some forms of meditation.
Emotional and energetic release and rebalancing
are also allowed and encouraged. The emphasis
is intrapersonal rather than interpersonal.
Participants are not patients but persons actively
consenting to explore in awareness. The leader
functions to reflect, clarify, and respect whatever
emerges in this process. The aim is unfoldment,
wholeness, and growth, rather than adjustment,
cure, or accomplishment. This introductory
workshop is both didactic and experiential.
Utilizing group exercises, meditations, and discussion, participants work with each other to
explore ways of increasing our quality of awareness as well as working with what arises in the
process. Open seat work may be included but is
not the focus of the workshop.
Join Micheline Berry and friends for a healing
weekend of celebration and silence, rejuvenation and empowerment, purification and fun,
stillness and ecstasy. You will have the opportunity to detox and re-energize while cultivating
your authentic creativity through invigorating
“hot” Vinyasa yoga sequences, ecstatic dance,
and empowering pranayama as we explore the
healing aspect of the “flow state” and how to cultivate its evolutionary dance in many diverse
ways. Micheline’s retreats are known for their
ability to catalyze healing and transformation
through the integration of yoga, meditation,
music and dance, indigenous ritual, bodywork,
ridiculous laughter, and deep communion with
pristine, wild environments. Please bring a yoga
mat. For more information about Micheline,
visit www.michelineberry.com.
Please note: Meeting times for this workshop are
longer than the average Esalen workshop.
How many times have you heard a story that
moved you or inspired you in some way? Would
you like to move people in the same way? Do
you want to be more authentic and inspiring
when you speak? Would you like to feel confident and have fun? Then it’s time you turned to
storytelling. Telling stories quickly engages people’s hearts and minds. Storytelling conveys
ideas, knowledge, and wisdom faster than any
other form of communication, and stories are
remembered long after they are told. Stories are
inspirational, empowering, and enjoyable. If you
want to learn the magic of storytelling and be
able to tell stories from your heart, join us for
this five-day intensive. This storytelling journey
is designed for everyone–educators, business
professionals, writers, artists, and entertainers
from all walks of life. Whether you are a novice
or an accomplished storyteller, this workshop
brings forth your own inherent wisdom and storytelling heart. No artistic or storytelling talent
is required. Just be willing to have fun and be
moved. Using a variety of techniques you can:
Exploring Creativity
Dana Zed
During this weekend, leave your doubts and insecurities at home so that you may better access
and express your inner artistic voice to its fullest
potential. Many art techniques will be available
for you to explore. You can become absorbed
with one or try them all. Included will be glass
fusing, silk scarves, oven baked clay sculpting,
painting, beadwork, mosaic, and portraiture.
The class environment encourages you to deepen the dialogue with yourself (making art) while
having fun in a completely non-judgmental,
supportive, creative atmosphere.
Surrounded by the beautiful Esalen grounds, we
will be able to do some work with nature as well.
Any level of art experience from none to professional is acceptable.
• Experience your inner story wisdom
• Discover deeper meanings in your stories of
work and life
Quick Meals with Whole Foods
Leslie Cerier
Fantasizing about quick, delicious, and nutritionally balanced meals? In this hands-on vegetarian cooking class, organic chef, teacher, and
cookbook author Leslie Cerier will excite your
palate with an inspirational lineup of quick
meals with whole foods, and the key word here
is fast! You’ll learn timesaving tips, be introduced
to quick cooking ingredients, and discover how
to manage every part of your cooking process
effectively and efficiently, from setting up your
kitchen and chopping vegetables to shopping
seasonally. You’ll also get ideas on leftover management, enhancing flavor, substituting ingredients, and using garnishes to dress up the dining
experience.
During the workshop, you’ll be shown how to:
Storytelling from the Heart
Karen Dietz
• Build storytelling skills and confidence
• Find which story to tell
• Deliver messages that touch the heart, mind,
and spirit without moralizing
• Create meaningful, memorable stories
• Cook with fast-track proteins: quinoa,
amaranth, buckwheat, hemp seeds, nuts,
tempeh, lentils, seitan, and more
• Prepare balanced meals with a wide range of
tastes: sweet, salty, spicy, and pungent
• Vary recipes using different cooking liquids
(vegetable stock, wine, or coconut milk) and a
palette of spices
Beginners and seasoned cooks will get great
value in this wonderful and approachable class.
Each day, morning sessions will be devoted to
cooking up a gourmet lunch feast from appetizers to dessert. During the afternoons we’ll have
group discussion about quick and easy, organic,
and seasonal vegetarian cooking from scratch
for health and vitality, and cook some more in
the kitchen. Join Leslie Cerier for a class that
will delight the palate and inspire your home
cooking.
Recommended reading: Cerier, Gluten-Free
Recipes for the Conscious Cook and Going Wild in
the Kitchen.
($50 ingredient fee paid directly to the leader)
Gravity and Grace: The Power of
Surrender and Intuitive Response
Peter Sterios
By design, the practice of Hatha yoga is a physical experience and also has the potential to produce a powerful mystical experience, depending
on the quality of one’s attention during practice.
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In this workshop, you will receive clear and concise guidance to sharpen your attention and
reacquaint yourself with what lies beyond the
purely physical experience. The mystical experience operates in the realm of subtle body sensations—energy—and the power of your “feeling
minds,” the heart and gut. Understanding the
power and the place for such experiences is
helpful as you age, to maintain a meaningful and
healthy life. During this program, you can discover and strengthen your ability to balance
gravity and grace—ever-present tools that uncover physical and mental limitations and heighten
present-moment awareness. Through strengthening awareness of the subtle body, you can naturally begin to resolve limitations and awaken
infinite creativity.
During the program, you will be shown how to:
• Harness the subtle external force of gravity to
safely deepen your practice
• Educate your body and sharpen your attention
toward the internal call for surrender while
meeting physical resistance
• Tone intuition and build trust in the feeling
centers of the heart and gut
• Awaken the subtle internal force of grace
• Develop and trust your inner teacher
Students at any level can discover ways to activate the body’s feeling centers for healing.
Movement classes will be accompanied with
live acoustical music, provided by world music
recording artist Masood Ali Khan. Please visit
www.petersterios.com for recommended articles.
Please bring a yoga mat.
Reclaiming Your Authentic Self
Anne Watts
Have you ever found yourself thinking you
want one thing but doing something else? The
thing you’re doing comes from the inner child.
What, exactly, is the inner child? It has many
names: the authentic self, natural child, creative
energy, or inner place of knowing. The inner
child works differently in each of us. We are
often out of touch with this part of ourselves, yet
it is the part that runs our lives.
This workshop is for people who want to experience more joy and personal potency in their
lives. In a safe and loving environment you will
have the opportunity to tell your own story and
hear the stories of others, receive and give
appropriate, healing touch, and reclaim and
affirm the safety of your own body. You will also
uncover core beliefs that hold you back, move
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through fear, and learn techniques for safely
releasing anger and sadness. Additionally,
through the use of visualization techniques,
drawing, and dynamic sculpting, you will discover your inner child and your inner nurturing
parent, and create the opportunity to see your
internal family images from new and different
perspectives. The partnership you establish
between the inner child and parent will enable
you to live your life with a new level of potency,
peace, and joy. For more information about
Anne and her work, please see
www.annewatts.com.
Self-Healing: Awakening Your Power
to Create Health and Vitality
Meir Schneider
Do you want to see better or get rid of your
glasses? Overcome chronic tension from stress
and computer use? Release the tension in your
aching muscles? Prevent problems that lead to
suffering, joint deterioration, and paralysis?
Would you like to age with vitality, mobility, and
health for the eyes and body?
Self-Healing is body-mind work with rehabilitative and preventative applications. Every exercise teaches how to listen to the body and
respond to its needs. Self-Healing grew out of
Meir Schneider’s personal journey of natural
healing from congenital blindness using a
unique combination of eye exercises, movement, and self-massage. Meir read by Braille
until he was a teenager; today he drives a car
with an unrestricted license! During this period
of intense self-discovery, Meir began to craft
massage and movement regimens for disabled
people that brought about dramatic improvement. This method unlocks the healing potential within each person.
Recommended reading: Schneider, Movement for
Self-Healing.
Ageless Vitality: Perpetual Renewal
in Action
Elisa Lodge
Ageless Vitality is our original nature, which is
as expressive as the elements, as resourceful as
the minerals, as changeable as the seasons, as
self-renewing as the plants, as graceful as the
animals, and as free as the windy air. In this
workshop, participants will gain a deepened
appreciation of how their body language, emotional history, and self-image are intimately
intertwined. The habit of “sameness,” or living
life in repetitive patterns that cause us to
breathe, sit, stand, walk, and talk with little variation, is a major source of chronic tension,
addiction, and sedentary decline. Our nervous
system thrives on novelty! Together, we will contrast conditioned attitudes and static behavior
patterns with a vital physiology that reflects
fluid flexibility, free-spirited breathing, resonant
vocal power, and authentic emotional energy.
Integrating an expressive vocabulary of feeling
into daily life activities eroticizes nerve fibers,
warms the flesh, and arouses the arteries, fires
alertness, and pumps blood into our hearts with
undivided passion. With more unbridled energy
and creative vigor, there is renewed freedom to
breathe as the wind, walk with joy, speak with
heart, and play the game of life with grace, boldness, and daring.
Recommended reading: Lodge, Wowzacise:
Growing Young on the Ball.
Experience your own self-healing through gentle movement exercises, self-massage, visual
imagery, and breathwork. Release physical limitations and the restricted concepts of health that
accompany them. Learn how to achieve and
maintain optimal health throughout your life.
Highlights include:
Leslie Cerier
• Methods to let go of deeply held tension and
stress
• Natural vision improvement exercises
including a starlight walk, weather permitting
• Exercises for the pool and hot tub to enhance
joint mobility
• Exercises to overcome back pain and stiffness
• Strategies for preventing and overcoming
repetitive strain injuries.
In this hands-on vegetarian cooking class,
gourmet organic chef/teacher and cookbook
author Leslie Cerier presents whole foods that
are not just good for you, but also pleasurable
and delicious. Come cook and feast on exciting
vegetarian dishes that will enhance your
immune system, give you energy, rejuvenate
your senses, keep your bones strong, and help
you maintain an active lifestyle. During the
workshop, learn to:
Improvisational Cooking for Health
and Vitality
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
• Stock a cornucopia of organic whole foods,
including beans, grains, sea vegetables, soy
foods, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables, and
cook them easily from scratch
• Expand your cooking repertoire and boost
nutrition with exotic ancient grains like teff,
quinoa, Bhutanese red rice, and Chinese
“forbidden” black rice
• Use herbs and spices to enhance flavor and
create international dishes
• Mix and match foods that are high in
antioxidants, calcium, and iron to invent your
own recipes
• Substitute ingredients by color, flavor, seasonal
availability, texture, cooking times, and whim
Saturday is devoted to cooking up a feast for our
lunch and dinner. During our other sessions we
have group discussion about creative cooking
for health and vitality, and improvise more in
the kitchen.
Excite your palate with a treasure-trove of
healthy and taste-tempting recipes. This class is
guaranteed to delight the palate and inspire
home cooking. Leslie Cerier will show novice
and seasoned cooks how to make cooking and
eating deeply nourishing as we go through our
changing lives with grace and ease.
Recommended reading: Cerier, Gluten-Free
Recipes for the Conscious Cook and Going Wild in
the Kitchen.
($25 ingredient fee paid directly to the leader)
The Occult in America:
An Adventure in Arcane History
Mitch Horowitz & Erik Davis
Despite being a young country, America has a
long and venerable tradition of homegrown
occult mysteries. From Spiritualism to the Ouija
Board, mental healing to hoodoo, and neopaganism to Rosemary’s Baby, Americans endlessly reinvent arcane lore. This phenomenon
not only has inspired the current wave in alternative spirituality, but also dramatically altered
Western culture and our most intimate sense of
how we understand ourselves.
Now, Erik Davis (author of TechGnosis) and
Mitch Horowitz (author of Occult America), two
leading writers on the cultural impact of mysticism and the occult, explore the lost, unusual,
and hugely engaging story of how the occult
became American and then touched the rest of
the world.
We first consider the migration of mystical
philosophies to the colonial world, then explore
the revolutions in Spiritualism, mind-power,
Freemasonry, hoodoo (traditional African
magic), and other movements. Finally, we focus
on the twentieth and twenty-first century explosions in New Age and Aquarian ideas and practices that first blossomed on the West Coast
(very much including Esalen) before igniting a
spiritual revolution across the globe.
Both entertaining and intellectually rigorous,
this class on the history of American occultism
helps illuminate the way our own personal spiritual journeys have unfolded against a larger historical backdrop. Through spirited lectures augmented with photographs, film clips, and discussions, we not only come to understand
America in a new way, but also meet the spiritual ancestors who made us who we are.
Recommended reading: Horowitz, Occult
America; Davis, The Visionary State and Nomad
Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica.
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MythBody at Play in the Year of the Hare
Chungliang Al Huang & Robert Walter
Chungliang Al Huang coined the term
MythBody for the Esalen workshops he once
led with the late Joseph Campbell. Huang and
Walter resurrected that neologism to describe
their continuing exploration of “The Way of the
Animal Powers”: that vital interrelationship
between your physical being and your story of
yourself. They write: “During our playful weekend, you will loose your inner leveret, domesticate the jackrabbit within, and (we can’t resist)
learn to love your bunny. We’ll explore mythical
images of the Hare in Chinese lore and as
embodied in our multi-dimensional—spiritual,
emotional, physical—consciousness through
lively stories and joyful tai ji dancing. We’ll
weave rabbit tales with calligraphy and conundrum, poetry with praxis, in celebration of an
extremely clever creature.”
Finding Our Mythic Path
Steven Pritzker & Ruth Richards
We all have personal myths we’ve developed
based on our experience. An individual’s personal mythology may begin as a child’s ingenious
solution to a seemingly impossible dilemma
that he or she confronts. This myth might be
long lasting or might change over time as each
person meets different life encounters and challenges. How little we suspect the hidden themes
and stories of our lives, the invisible forces and
ancient archetypes that may unconsciously
organize our experience. These unconscious
forces sometimes guide us while influencing
what we see, feel, think, and even how we act.
Shouldn’t we know them? Might we sometimes
like to change them? Parts of our personal
mythology may come from culture, from family,
from our own experience.
Using David Feinstein and Stanley Krippner’s
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HANNS BECKER
In the Chinese calendar, now in its 79th sexagenarian cycle, a year can be named in three different ways: after an animal in the Chinese zodiac;
by using the complex stem-branch system of
classification; and by referring to the number of
years since the crowning of the first king of
China, the Yellow Emperor, in 2697 BC.
Accordingly, the current year in the Gregorian
calendar, 2011, is year 4708 in the Chinese calendar, year of the Metal (yang) Hare. Though the
Chinese zodiac, unlike its western analog, isn’t a
fixed system, tradition holds that the ruling animal will shape the traits—that is, the MythBody—
of people born during that particular year.
book The Mythic Path as a guide, this workshop
embarks on a multi-stage process, using reflection, art, writing, dream work, and more, to journey into the past, possible futures, and diverse
realms of experiencing. We will be sharing and
supporting each other’s process in a safe setting,
and the sharing of personal content is entirely
optional. You can discover the germs of new
mythologies for your future, and begin to weave
them into place through activities and rituals.
Recommended reading: Feinstein and Krippner,
The Mythic Path.
The Art and Science of Mindfulness
Shauna Shapiro & Donna Simmons
This workshop offers health care professionals
and meditation practitioners a way to embark
on the exploration, healing, and enhancement
of the human mind, body, and heart. Drawing
on Buddhist practices of mindfulness and loving kindness, as well as current scientific evidence, this workshop invites participants to
explore the transformative effects of meditative
practices. Based on Dr. Shapiro’s book, The Art
and Science of Mindfulness: Integrating Mindfulness
into Psychotherapy and the Helping Professions, the
workshop offers insights and practices for therapists, healers, and all those interested in awakening their minds and opening their hearts. In
addition, the group will review revolutionary
research in mindfulness and neurobiology that
illustrates how current Western science is substantiating ancient Eastern wisdom. Specifically,
the workshop will focus on the following integrative topics:
• The importance of intention, attention and
attitude
• Mindfulness and loving kindness practices
and mindful movement and the wisdom of
the body
• The collaboration of mindfulness and
psychotherapy
• The importance of self-care for those in the
caring profession
• The wisdom of positive psychology and the
cultivation of positive states of mind.
The Sound of Yum!
Alyssa DeCaro & Phillip Novotny
Combining Body of Sound and Yum movement
sessions, this workshop offers the best of both
worlds. You will dance your heart out to amazing live music and discover your own expression of rhythm, voice, and movement. Body of
Sound invites you to discover your body as your
most essential instrument. Delve into the innate
rhythms and movement of the body and the
voice, exploring both structure and improvisation to create a musical tapestry that draws from
body percussion, contact improvisation, vocal
and rhythmic exercises, circle song, and
Balinese Kecak.
Yum sessions are inspired by the teachings of
Vinn Martí and Gabrielle Roth, and contact
improvisation. These ecstatic movement sessions use live, improvised, multi-genre music as
the bridge between deep trusting and spontaneous connection with others in a safe, nonjudgmental space. Dance and be danced by the
collective energy exchange as we connect
through breath, movement, and music. Let the
energy rise in the ultimate celebration of the life
force moving through all of us! No experience is
required, all are welcome.
Everyday Leadership: Bringing All of
Who You Are to Everything You Do
Athena Katsaros
Come discover the essence of your unique leadership and how to express it in every aspect of
your life. This workshop is based on the belief
that everyone has the capacity to be a leader and
that leadership is an expression of who you are,
not simply what you do.
This weekend is devoted to you discovering what
makes you unique and developing your vision for
the impact you want to have. Through conversation, exercises, and a range of processes, we move
beyond conventional definitions of leadership
and toward bringing all of who you are to everything you do. You will cultivate new ways of
showing up as a leader in your life–whether it is
in your family, community, organization, or the
world.
Working with other participants, explore, test,
and play with your authentic leadership style.
When you embody it you can experience possibilities you have not yet dreamed of. Goals for
the workshop are:
• A deeper understanding of your unique
leadership qualities
• Clarity about your purpose and vision as a
leader
• Ideas for taking action and making an impact
Recommended reading: Cashman, Leadership
from the Inside Out.
Week of March 27–April 1
Attachment, Attunement and Adult
Sexuality
Siegmar Gerken & Cornelia Gerken, with
Dyrian Benz & JoAnna Chartrand
Early experiences of parent-child emotional
attunement or misattunement can result in
chronic stress patterns, internal working models
of relationship, and attachment styles that
directly impact adult intimate relationships.
This seminar provides a therapeutic model for
emotional intimacy and sexual fulfillment that
synthesizes the relevant research from both
developmental psychobiology and sexology, and
offers a body- based Gestalt approach to relationship and sexual concerns. As individuals and
couples develop a greater awareness of the
somatic roots of intimacy, and how their attachment styles and sexuality are interconnected,
their relationship and sexual difficulties can
become significant opportunities for personal
growth and healing. Areas to be explored
include:
• How secure, insecure-anxious, and insecureavoidant attachment styles are related to adult
intimacy, romantic love, and eroticism
• How mutually attuned nonverbal
communication nourishes empathy and
intersubjectivity and how these skills can be
learned
• How to orient clients to a more implicit level
of relating and identify nonverbal patterns
that can undermine or energize affection and
desire
Through Our Own Eyes: A Retreat
For and By Women Physicians
Charlea Massion
“This is the eighth meeting of women physicians at Esalen since 1997,” Charlea Massion
writes. “In a community of peers and colleagues,
we will reflect deeply on our personal and professional lives, encourage a better balance of
work and play, and support each other in our
evolution as healers.”
Each day participants will experience:
• Facilitated small-group seminars to explore
the creativity and joy, as well as the grief and
traumas, of medical training and practice
• Exploration of self-care strategies, work-life
balance, and effective personal and career
transitions.
• Open time to pursue activities that renew your
vitality and creativity
“Bring your journal, your watercolors, sunglasses, and a great book. We encourage you to attend
with a colleague or friend from medical school,
residency, or your community.”
Please note: This workshop will offer Category I
Continuing Medical Education credit (for an
additional $75). All participants must be physicians (MDs or DOs) and must register and pay
additional fees ($650) to Chiara Associates prior
to registering with Esalen. Please contact
Charlea Massion: phone 831-421-2476 and fax
831-462-9098 or chiarasantacruz@gmail.com.
http://sites.google.com/site/ourowneyes/.
Recommended Reading: Madson, Improv
Wisdom; Simmons, The Curse of the Good Girl;
Bolen, Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the
Women, Save the World.
The MAX: Expanding the Limits of Your
Self-Expression
Paula Shaw
For over twenty years, THE MAX has held an
honored status among the Esalen staff and is
considered by many to be an essential rite of
passage for community members. The purpose
of THE MAX is to discover yourself beyond
who you know yourself to be. It is a voyage
through your own humanity—a journey to discover the extent of your self-expressive power.
Employing a variety of acting, communication,
and observation techniques, it’s designed to
expand your limits “to the max” and move you
into a new arena of personal creativity and selfexpression.
In THE MAX, participants undertake a challenging exploration of the sources of their emotional limitations. Working individually, “on
stage,” each person is encouraged and supported
to go at their own pace, playing to and with
other group members. With strong guidance,
people move through lifelong fears of being “on
the spot,” emerging into greater authenticity and
enhanced “presence.”
There are exercises that use raw emotion, roleplaying, and dress-up assignments. This is an
opportunity to experience yourself in ways you
may have dreamed about but never thought possible. The course is for those committed and
courageous in their process. And it has been
constructed with the understanding that this
5See pages 94-95 for reservations, fees, accommodations, scholarship information, and discounts.
47
kind of risk requires a very safe workspace. If
your heart beats faster when you think of taking
THE MAX, it may be just “the thing to do.” For
details visit www.themaxwithpaulashaw.com.
Please note: Due to the intense and sequential
nature of this workshop, attendance at all sessions is necessary.
Requirement: Bring a 1-3 minute memorized
piece—monologue, poem, song, etc.
Unexpected Obstacles and
Opportunities: A Mythological Toolbox
(18th ed., revised)
Robert Walter & The Joseph Campbell
Foundation
Every year for decades Joseph Campbell celebrated his March 26th birthday at Esalen. Asked
why, Campbell would recall Carl Jung wondering: “What myth am I living by?” And how Jung,
when he realized he didn’t know, wrote: “I took
it upon myself to get to know ‘my’ myth, and I
regarded this as the task of tasks.” “That’s what a
birthday is for,” Campbell would conclude, “and
what Esalen is about.” During the March following Campbell’s (1987) death, some of his friends
again gathered at Esalen for “Campbell Week”
celebrations—a tradition that has endured. We
eventually dubbed our festivities “A
Mythological ToolBox,” because our focus on
retooling the myths shaping our lives requires
no prior knowledge of Joseph Campbell, only a
sense of humor.
Our tools for exploring mythmaking include
music, dance, and song; sitting quietly, recalling
dreams, rekindling visions; crafting masks,
altars, medicine bundles and such: a mix of solo,
small-group, and collective activities that provide for both self reflection and expression.
Who were you? What’s impressed you most?
What favorite stories, games, treasures? Who are
you? What’s framed on your walls, dangling
from your rearview mirror, taped to the refrigerator door? What lies forgotten in the basement
or secreted in the attic? Who do you aspire to
be? What face do you imagine in the mirror?
What adventures do you envision or pursue in
your fantasies? If you dare to revision yourself,
then join our improvisational rebirth ritual,
where the talk is always of transformation.
Bring a totemic object that’s meaningful and
expendable.
Joseph Campbell Foundation president Bob
Walter will facilitate. For more information,
visit www.jcf.org.
Your Life Cannot Be Any Easier Than
Your Movement: Introduction to
Cortical Field Reeducation®
Sybil Krauter & Ellen Kindl
How we sit, stand, move, or respond to contact
with others reflects patterns wired into our nervous systems in infancy. By early childhood,
conflicting intentions distort these patterns.
Feeling powerless, we attempt to survive and to
win love by figuring out “big people’s rules.” The
resulting strategies may protect us as children
but, deeply ingrained in our muscular postures
and movements, they imprison us as adults and
limit our choices. They remain outside of awareness, causing discomfort and limitation.
By reeducating the brain-muscle-emotion connection, restrictions in movement can be
released, freeing lifelong behaviors that have
organized around that movement and restoring
freedom of choice. The protective postures are
altered, deeply affecting the body’s habitual
defense system and allowing a higher level of
energy.
This workshop begins the process of relearning
the ease, fluidity, and openness taken for granted as a child and lost somewhere along the way.
It is for the sedentary, for the active who want to
increase physical skills and reduce risk of injury,
for those dealing with aftereffects of injury or
emotional trauma, and the professionals who
work with them. It is for the chronically tired
and stressed who want to take better care of
their necks, shoulders, and backs, and for those
who want to improve their posture, flexibility,
and breathing while deepening their sense of
connection and belonging.
Esalen® Massage with a Touch of Yoga
Nora Matten & Peggy Horan
Esalen Massage is best known for its long flowing strokes, and quality of touch and contact.
During these five days, we will learn the principles of Esalen Massage, including the long flowing strokes over the whole body, joint mobilization, passive movement, and light stretches.
A daily yoga practice will assist us in moving
into connection with our own bodies, by supporting posture, body mechanics, and body
awareness and also deepening a sense of self.
From this deeper contact with self, we can more
easily move into touching one another with sensitivity and awareness.
all levels, massage demonstrations, and plenty of
time for supervised practice.
Combining yoga with massage serves as a beautiful self-care tool, as well as a way to bring ourselves into contact with our bodies. This contact
serves as a wonderful reference library of movement that we can integrate within our own bodies, as well as our massage practice. Please bring
a yoga mat.
Weekend of April 1–3
I’m Right and You’re Wrong:
The Journey from Self-Justification
to Self-Actualization
Elliot Waker Aronson & Carol Tavris
Abraham Maslow, one of the founding fathers of
the human potential movement, taught us that
self-actualization is the ultimate goal of human
endeavor. The journey toward self-actualization is
the process of maximizing our potential and
becoming who we were meant to be. One of the
major roadblocks to self-actualization is self-justification: the need we all have to convince ourselves and others that we are smart, competent,
and moral—even when our behavior has been otherwise. We do this in order to maintain our selfesteem and the esteem of others. Self-justification
is hard-wired; it has survival value because it has
benefits: It lets us sleep at night after committing
a blunder or making a bad decision. But it can also
have disastrous personal and professional costs. It
can keep us clinging to outdated beliefs, traveling
on self-defeating paths, and harming the people
we love most. Ultimately, it blocks self-awareness
and prevents us from reaching our highest potential as human beings. Elliot Aronson, who studied
with Abraham Maslow, is a leading researcher on
the causes and consequences of self-justification.
Carol Tavris, Elliot’s coauthor on their book on
this subject, has conducted many workshops on
psychological themes. Through lectures, group
discussions, and group exercises, learn how selfjustification operates, how we can recognize it in
ourselves and in others, and how we can develop
ways to overcome the hard-wiring that produces it
and move toward self-actualization. www.mistakesweremadebutnotbyme.com.
Recommended reading: Tavris & Aronson,
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me).
Class format includes yoga practice suitable for
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Awakening Joy: 10 Steps that will Put You on the
Road to Real Happiness ; Goldstein, The Experience
of Insight; Kornfield, A Path with Heart.
Soul Motion™: Body Prayer
Zuza Engler & Scott Engler
“Soul is flow, an ever-changing cloudscape of
textures, hues, sensations, scents, and feelings,”
Zuza Engler writes. “Soul is where the deathless
spirit meets and moves the finite human body.
Body Prayer is a wild and luminous offering of
the body in motion to this sacred Presence that
is continually breathing us into Being.”
Soul Motion movement practice is a meeting
with self and other in a dance that is profoundly
nourishing, creative, intelligent, emotionally
savvy, heartbreaking, soul-making, spirited, challenging, and transforming. It involves diving,
deepening, and dissolving into each movement
moment. It is a journey toward the dynamic
stillness at the center of all things, the place of
rest at the heart of sound and motion.
KIM QUINONES
“This formless dance form allows space for passionate full-bodied movement as well as mindful inner explorations. It takes place at the crossroads of the vertical drop into self and the horizontal extension toward another, inside the
paradox of the mundane and the ecstatic. To follow the divine choreography, we learn to fall
and flounder. Going deeply into contact with
self, we awake enveloped in communion. The
permission to relax and rejoice in community
invites a shift from alone to All One, from ‘my
dance’ to the One Dance.”
Being Present For Your Life:
Introduction to Mindfulness
Meditation
James Baraz
How much are you present for your own life?
Most of us spend more time in our own inner
world—worrying about the future, replaying the
past, or lost in fantasy—than experiencing what
life is offering to us right now. The present
moment is where we can most directly be intimate with our life—touched by beauty and intimacy, while learning through the difficult
lessons how to open our hearts.
Mindfulness—or vipassana—meditation is the
practice described by the Buddha for developing
wisdom, compassion, and peace by learning to
be mindful of what is actually happening in the
present moment. Using the breath, body sensations, thoughts, and emotions as objects of
attention, we can learn to be more fully awake.
When we see directly that the nature of reality
is change, we begin to let go of clinging to the
pleasant or avoiding the unpleasant. We become
more capable of meeting each situation with
spontaneity, fearlessness, and love.
Participants will be introduced to this meditation practice and the principles on which it is
based. There will be periods of silent sitting and
walking meditation as well as discussion, providing a foundation for applying mindfulness
practice to everyday life.
Recommended Reading: Baraz and Alexander,
Essential Practice from the Esalen
Tai Ji Deck
Chungliang Al Huang
Esalen elder Chungliang Al Huang has taught
Living Tao philosophy on the Esalen deck for
nearly five decades. This weekend will be dedicated to bringing the most essential gems of
Chungliang’s teaching from his perennial Tai Ji
classic, Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain: The
Essence of Tai Ji, published thirty-seven years ago
from the transcriptions of his early years of
teaching with Alan Watts at Esalen. You are
invited to discover and explore the magic of tai
ji and living your own Tao: The Watercourse
Way of the Dance of Life.
To work with Huang is to learn to move with wind
and water—not only in the tai ji exercises, but also in
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the course of everyday life. In going with the
Watercourse Way, he is as fresh as the mountain
streams and as deep and powerful as the Yangtze
River. Chungliang woos and beguiles his students
instead of forcing them. This is the mark of a truly
superior teacher who works upon others as the sun
and rain upon plants.
–Alan Watts
Gay Men Thriving! Developing
Intimacy, Self Acceptance and Love
Rik Isensee & James Guay
As gay men, we all have deep needs and desires
we seek to fulfill: a longing for trust, confidence,
intimacy, acceptance, and love. Yet growing up
gay in a homophobic culture, it’s understandable
that we may be wary of being vulnerable with
other men. Even when an intimate connection
is truly available, we may find ourselves resisting, pulling away, or getting scared.
This experiential workshop uses the gentle yet
powerful methods of mindful body awareness
to explore this paradoxical edge between longing and resistance. A deep awareness of physical
and emotional reactions will reveal habitual
responses that often keep us from getting what
we want. Then, through a range of respectful
(and entirely voluntary) experiences—including
imagery, eye contact, evocative music, and supportive, nonsexual touch—we will expand our
ability to give and receive heartfelt nurturing,
attention, and loving kindness. Come join us for
a fun and enriching weekend! We will build on
our strengths, discover a joyful and playful side
of gay men’s creativity, and tap into the resources
of our own internal wisdom.
Recommended reading: Isensee, Love Between
Men: Enhancing Intimacy and Resolving Conflicts
in Gay Relationships, Reclaiming Your Life: The Gay
Man’s Guide to Love, Self-Acceptance, and Trust, and
Are You Ready? The Gay Man’s Guide to Thriving at
Midlife.
liberation that follows fully opens up your mind
to imaginative freedom, your voice to new and
surprising sounds, verbal humor, eloquence, and
flowing physical grace in movement.
In this work, you are never alone. The easy-tofollow instructions and coaching tune you in
with the other players, and when that connection is made, instantaneous creativity issues
forth effortlessly. Once you’ve allowed yourself
to join in, each improvised piece takes flight,
with truly amazing results. As a participant in
these games, you go back and forth from being a
player to being the audience. You play from both
positions, and both are filled with fun.
The program is an experience of how wonderfully
well life can flow when you get out of your own
way, and the learning is what it means to be able
to do that. It is also full of falling-down laughter.
All are welcome. Prior improv experience will
be forgiven.
With the Grain: The Art of Nonviolent
Woodturning
Jerry Kermode
Enjoy an opportunity to learn the ancient craft
of woodturning during this weekend of handson instruction in technique and philosophy.
Bring together the thrill of creating with the
sensuality of working with wood, as you peel
away the exterior to find the art within. Deepen
your understanding of how the fibers lie within
the wood and how the chisel slices those fibers.
Learn to make utilitarian items in which the spirit of the wood and your own spirit commingle.
Jerry Kermode will assist you in using breath,
posture, and attitude to change fear into curiosity. Learn the discipline of carving on a lathe,
turning carving mallets, lamps, weed-pots, and
more, while also discovering the meditative
state that turning takes you to. The final project
is turning a bowl; create your own vessel, a symbol of both holding and releasing.
Improv Inspiration: Wit and Wisdom
in an Instant
Paula Shaw
This workshop is an adventure in releasing programmed patterns and discovering the delight
of spontaneous creation. The joy of playing
improvisational theatre games comes from surrendering to the process. Each game has focus
points that allow you to suspend your accustomed automated and controlled thinking. The
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In a relaxed, informative, and pragmatic style,
Jerry will share his love of trees and the beauty
they hold within. His style of woodturning is
based on the ability to allow the wood to be cut,
rather than forcing it to the turner’s will.
All materials, including mini-lathes and carving
chisels, are supplied, with two people sharing
each lathe. The activities will be individual and
shared, increasing the exchange of ideas. Let
your spirit soar with the shavings, all in the Art
Barn at the edge of the Pacific.
Week of April 3–8
The Alchemy of Gender
Lorie Dechar & Benjamin Fox
Beyond the battles and seductions of Venus and
Mars, how is gender relevant in the world
today? At the level of spirit, we are each a unique
reflection of cosmic wholeness. Yet, we travel
through life in a male or female body, influenced by our physiology, sexual instincts, and
familial and cultural expectations. Too often our
gender identity becomes a constricting habit
rather than the realized experience of self in
relationship to others. All alchemical traditions
honor the equality of the feminine and masculine principles, holding these opposites as two
aspects of a divine unity. Today, we turn to the
wisdom of these ancient traditions to heal the
wounds caused by a prevailing patriarchal consciousness that has insisted on dualistic separation of sacred from profane, mind from body,
human beings from nature, and ultimately, feminine from masculine within our own psyches.
In this workshop, we reframe our ideas about
gender as they relate to our personal wounds,
discovering new possibilities for healing our
lives, relationships, and planet. Drawing on the
tools of various alchemical systems, including
traditional Chinese medicine, C. G. Jung’s archetypal psychology, evolutionary astrology, plant
spirit medicine, and awareness practices, we
transform our unconscious attitudes about gender by sharing our stories and exploring our
desires, relational patterns, and dreams. Through
this work, we can learn to freely express the
archetypal energies of both genders within our
being, and embrace the joy of living from the
fullness of our own authentic nature.
Rosen Method Movement: Move Easily,
Age Gracefully and Remain Vital
Jane Malek
Marion Rosen’s vision of Rosen Method
Bodywork and Movement has brought her
recognition as an international pioneer in the
field of somatics, or body-oriented therapies.
She worked for many years as a physical therapist, and developed these exercises as a way to
prevent physical difficulties before they arise,
and help her clients feel better and age more
gracefully. At ninety-six years old, she is a true
testimonial to her work.
Rosen movements are remarkably easy to do
and yet they provide many benefits, and can be
adapted for those who have pain or physical limitations. During sessions, the exercises are done
individually, with participants sometimes holding hands in a circle, and sometimes working
with partners. The exercises can increase range
of motion, improve alignment, and help people
remain flexible and breathe more easily. The joy
of moving to music supports the relaxation
process, and enables participants to move in
new ways. Places that have not been moved for a
long time can be reawakened to help participants live life more fully.
are, providing an expanded perspective on the
destiny of souls.”
How to Hear Yourself:
A Proprioceptive Writing® Immersion
This training is open to those who have completed the weeklong Visionseeker 1 workshop
or its equivalent. If in doubt, please contact
Wesselman at PO Box 369, Captain Cook, HI
96704, or e-mail hw@sharedwisdom.com.
Linda Trichter Metcalf & Tobin Simon
In The Rosen Method of Movement, Marion Rosen
and Sue Brenner write, “Our goal is to make
people feel happy and motivated to dance rather
than drag themselves around. We would like
them to feel physically well when their bodies
move, and emotionally cheerful.” Built on deep
knowledge of anatomy and how people can
move, Rosen Method Movement helps people
bring more freedom into their lives through
movement.
Recommended reading: Wesselman &
Kuykendall, Spirit Medicine; Wesselman, The
Journey to the Sacred Garden and The Spiritwalker
Trilogy.
Recommended reading: Rosen and Brenner, The
Rosen Method of Movement and Rosen Method
Bodywork: Accessing the Unconscious through Touch;
Calais-Germain, Anatomy of Movement.
Painting in oils can be a profound experience,
one that engages all of our senses, our minds,
and our spirits. One of the most rewarding ways
to explore oil painting is through painting outside. Faced with nature’s dynamic forces we are
challenged to develop visual sensitivity, flexibility, and resilience. We come into deeper relationship with the world and with ourselves when
we open to the living landscape around us. We
begin to see the world as never before and our
paintings give evidence of that new vision.
Shamanic Cosmology:
Visionseeker Level 3
Hank Wesselman & Jill Kuykendall
Over the past 35,000 years, indigenous shamans
developed a methodology to expand awareness
and explore the many dimensions of reality, generating a rich body of knowledge about the nature
and function of the sacred realms. Unfortunately,
ever-multiplying overlays of spiritual scripture
and esoteric literature have obscured our understanding of these hidden worlds. Today, this confusion is being reversed as the methods of the
shaman are being reconsidered by non-tribal
Westerners seeking direct experience of the
transpersonal realms once again.
Hank Wesselman writes: “This workshop will
engage participants in investigative shamanic
fieldwork into the numinous regions of the spirit worlds where all mysteries become known.
We will deepen connection with our spirit
helpers as well as our oversoul and the elder
spirits who serve as master teachers on our
Cosmic Committee. We will hone our abilities
in areas such as divination and attempt to learn
more about those localities where the most creative work of souls is accomplished. We will
explore the nature of who and what we really
Please note: Bring a rattle, a drum, a notebook or
sketchpad, a set of oil or chalk pastels, a bandanna or eyeshade, and a light blanket. Please
refrain from alcohol during the workshop.
Painting the Outer and Inner Landscape
Adam Wolpert
This workshop invites both beginners and experienced painters to immerse themselves in the practice of oil painting. Daily sessions will be devoted
to painting rapid sketches and more developed
small oil paintings out of doors and exercises in
the studio during inclement weather. Basic oil
technique, instruction in setting up a palette, mixing colors, and brushwork will be balanced with
slide lectures on visual theory, composition, and
special issues in landscape painting. Participants
will learn from individual instruction and each
other, with opportunities to share their paintings
and experiences in a supportive environment.
The spectacular beauty of Esalen, with its radiant gardens, flowing waters, and rugged coastline, provides the perfect setting to explore this
exciting practice. Bring a sun hat, layers of
clothes, and a portable easel. If you don’t have an
easel and need to reserve one of the available six
portable easels please let the instructor know.
Feel free to email with any questions:
adam@adamwolpert.com.
(Optional materials fee of $125 paid directly
to leader includes all supplies for the class)
What is it like to really hear yourself? It’s unlike
ordinary hearing. It’s like entering a realm
where you think and feel differently than you
did before. Following certain simple rules while
you write opens the gate to this blissful realm.
The more you immerse yourself in this practice,
the more your thoughts open up to you.
For the last thirty-five years, Linda Trichter
Metcalf, originator of the Proprioceptive
Method and coauthor with Tobin Simon of
Writing the Mind Alive, has pioneered
Proprioceptive Writing (PW)® as a way to access
inner hearing. Practiced to music in twenty-fiveminute sessions under stress-free conditions,
alone and in groups, PW is a simple technique
that anyone can learn. Through PW you can
learn to listen to your thoughts with impassioned curiosity, reflect on them imaginatively,
and set them free. If you feel cut off from creative expression, you can reconnect to yourself
and dissolve expressive blocks through PW. If
you enjoy writing, PW can help you locate your
voice and narrate experience. Through daily PW
practice you can collect a rich storehouse of raw
material which you can draw on in your creative
projects. There will be two PW sessions daily
and optional poetry writing in the evenings.
Recommended reading: Metcalf and Trichter,
Writing the Mind Alive.
Gestalt Awareness Practice
Christine Price
The Way, when declared
Seems thin and so flavorless.
Nothing to look at, nothing to hear—
And when used—is inexhaustible.
—Lao Tzu
made primary relative to action, Gestalt
Awareness Practice has a strong relationship to
some forms of meditation. This form is similar
to some Reichian work as well, in that emotional and energetic release and rebalancing are
allowed and encouraged.
The emphasis is intrapersonal rather than interpersonal. Participants are not patients but per-
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sons actively consenting to explore in awareness. The leader functions to reflect, clarify, and
rather than adjustment, cure, or accomplishment. The workshop will utilize group exercises,
meditations, and discussion. The format combines introductory group work with the open
seat form in which each participant will have
the opportunity to work with the leader in a
group context.
The Healing Art of Deep Bodywork®—
Deep Tissue Skills for Massage
Practitioners: Advanced Hip-work,
Feet and Lower Legs
This class will focus on the hips at an advanced
level, the feet, and the lower legs. The prevalence
of hip pain, which, if not resolved, can lead to
hip replacement surgery, has become a complaint that practitioners see more frequently
than in the past. Learning to free the gluteus
medius, minimus, and the tensor fascia latae
will be an important focus in this class. Opening
the feet, and freeing the four primary soft tissue
layers of the sole of the foot will also be taught.
The effects on the entire body from competent
footwork are often remarkable. Participants will
be taught how to move seamlessly from the foot
onto the lower leg, with particular emphasis on
the tibialis anterior and its role in flexing the
foot at the ankle.
There will be plenty of time for questions, and
discussion of actual cases participants may have
encountered in their practices. Previous massage
experience is highly recommended for this
advanced class.
Raising Happiness: Simple Ways
to Raise Joyful Kids and Create
Happier Families
Christine Carter
Do you love your family but feel busy and overwhelmed by your life? Studies show that parents
tend to be unhappier than their childless counterparts. Should we accept that kids are a lot of
work, and they are necessarily going to drain the
cheer right out of us? Christine Carter doesn’t
think so.
Celebrate love and family during this workshop
dedicated to practicing skills that create happy,
healthy relationships, and teaching those skills
to our children.
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
Mastering the art of moving deeply into the
body’s soft tissue layers adds a powerful dimen-
sion to the massage practitioner’s skill set.
Bodyworkers who have learned to work slowly
and with great sensitivity on these deeper layers
are sought after both in private practice and in
spas. Perry and Johanna Holloman have created
a series of classes for massage professionals that
are designed to teach deep tissue skills, which
are readily integrated into participants’ current
massage practice.
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Drawing on what psychology, sociology, and
neuroscience reveal about the factors that create
joy and strong relationships, Carter will teach
simple skills to improve relationships with children, spouses, and ex-spouses.
Topics include:
• Why your happiness and the health of your
romantic relationship, if you have one, is critical
for your children’s success and happiness
• How to find more joy in your parenting and
romantic relationships, even if you feel like
you don’t have enough time
• How to encourage your family members so
they are engaged and passionate in their
activities
• How to eliminate happiness-killers from your
relationships and daily life
Spouses and children are among the most fulfilling and joyful aspects of our lives, when these
relationships are positive and healthy. This
workshop is appropriate for couples and for single parents interested in lowering stress and
bringing greater joy into their lives. Parallel children’s programming is available for parents who
would like to bring their kids.
The Magical Child
Ivy Mayer
Let your child experience the magic of
Esalen! Your child will create art, enjoy the
expansive garden and the Gazebo School Park
grounds, play, and take in the magic of the ocean,
the coast, and the vast night sky. Visual art activities may include making puppets, magic wands,
painting, and more. Expressive arts may include
child yoga, dharma games, sports, beach walks,
and exploring in nature. This workshop is open
to children ages 5-13 of parents or caregivers taking a concurrent workshop. Children of other
ages may be admitted with permission of the
group leader. Please contact ivymayer@yahoo.com
with any questions. We look forward to a weekend of delighting in the magical space of Esalen.
Special pricing applies to this workshop. Please
contact the Esalen office for details.
Spring Renewal and the Practices
of Yoga
similar way, the practitioners of yoga have journeyed for thousands of years to the ashram (yoga
community) to engage the practices of meditation,
pranayama (conscious breathing), chanting and
Hatha yoga. In Sanskrit, the ancient language of
India, the word “shramas” literally means fatigue,
and “ashram” means removal of fatigue. Quite simply, when we gather in community and engage the
various practices of yoga, we experience a sloughing off of accumulated energy, the removal of
fatigue, and return home renewed and refreshed.
You are welcomed, on this classic spring weekend,
to join us as we practice, heal, and play together.
Please have a minimum of three months recent
yoga experience and bring your own yoga mat.
ChiRunning®
Chris Griffin
ChiRunning is a revolutionary approach that
addresses the problem of injuries by combining
the inner focus of Tai Chi with running. This
innovative running technique brings together
body alignment and relaxation so you can run
with more ease and fluidity than you ever imagined. Many of us have experienced running as an
activity that takes a physical toll with sore muscles, knee injuries, hip pain, or shin splints. As
Danny Dreyer, founder of ChiRunning says, “It’s
not running that hurts your body … it’s the way
you run that does the damage.” The ChiRunning
method has been successfully taught to thousands of people with profound results.
Classes will include drills and exercises that
bring a new level of depth to your exercise routine and transform running from a sport to a
mindfulness practice. For those seeking a way to
supplement yoga practice with aerobic and
weight-bearing exercise, ChiRunning will show
you how to bring all of the core strengthening
of yoga into both walking and running. This
workshop is designed for all abilities, from total
beginners to seasoned veterans.
Please note: Bring running shoes, shorts, sweatpants, and clothing layers that will allow you to
adapt to the weather. The class is open to people
who have no debilitating injuries that would
prevent them from fully participating. Running
experience is not necessary as long as you are a
walker with an interest in running.
Taking time for oneself to go on retreat is one of
the many spiritual practices available to us. Often
on retreat, we enter into the cradle of nature where
the pranic force (life energy) is magnified and
completely available for anyone who comes. In a
Thriving in Mother-Daughter
Relationships
Renée Schultz
“Mothering a daughter is often among the most
intensely satisfying and challenging experiences
of a woman’s life,” writes Renée Schultz. “We
yearn for support for ourselves as mothers and
for wisdom in nurturing our daughters into
healthy women while sustaining close and loving
relationships with them. Yet many of us fear that
the wonderful ease and joy of our relationships
with our daughters will unravel during adolescence. Honoring the hard work of mothering
while simultaneously caring for our daughters
and ourselves guides us toward mutual thriving.”
Thriving in Mother-Daughter Relationships is a
workshop during which participants can
explore their experiences, values, hopes, and
fears as mothers while held in a community of
compassion and playfulness. We use the practices of The Mother-Daughter Project to question damaging assumptions about mothers and
daughters and to discover how we can simultaneously nurture ourselves, our daughters, and
our relationships with them through adolescence and beyond.
Through experiential exercises and discussion,
we can:
• Expand our appreciation for the challenges we
may have faced in our own transition from girl
to woman
• Develop a rich, multi-storied understanding of
the mother-daughter relationship as daughters
and as mothers of daughters
• Fine-tune our understanding of the values that
guide us as mothers
• Develop a plan for nurturing our daughters
and ourselves
• Discover ways to create a strong community of
women and girls to support us and our
daughters
This workshop is appropriate for mothers of
daughters and women interested in the motherdaughter relationship for their professional
practice.
Recommended Reading: Hamkins and Schultz,
The Mother-Daughter Project: How Mothers and
Daughters Can Band Together, Beat the Odds, and
Thrive Through Adolescence.
Callings: Finding and Following an
Authentic Life
Gregg Levoy
Callings are urgings and imperatives from the
deep self that tell us what it will take to make
our lives “come true.” They point us toward
awakenings, course corrections, and powerful
authenticity.
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DANIEL BIANCHETTA
on paper, an encaustic-altered book that incorporates fiber as sculpture and/or texture, underpaintings that use watercolor and oil paints,
paper-clay as a substrate or surface element, and
wax castings that will be incorporated into panel
work. This workshop is about tapping into the
creative play that moves our work forward. You
are encouraged to bring your unique voice to
each project, utilizing the materials provided in
new and inventive ways. Time will be provided
for you to work on each of the class-based projects, and then focus on specific techniques. This
workshop can awaken the creative senses, as
you work with the alchemy and physicality that
are inherent in the hot wax medium.
Enrollment is limited to twelve participants.
Imagining the Feminine in Film
This hands-on retreat takes a creative approach
to striking up a deep dialogue with our own
lives. Through writing, storytelling, myth, improvisation, meditation, reflection, and nature, participants explore the psychological, spiritual, and
practical processes we encounter in finding and
following our callings, whether calls to do something (become self-employed, go back to school,
leave or start a relationship, move to the country)
or calls to be something (more creative, less judgmental, more loving, less fearful). You will have
the opportunity to learn how to:
•
•
•
•
•
Clarify your callings
Discern whether a call is true
Work creatively with resistance and conflict
Reconnect with your powers and gifts
Gain a renewed sense of possibilities
Recommended reading: Levoy, Callings: Finding
and Following an Authentic Life.
®
An Esalen Massage Retreat for
Couples
In any relationship, the art of Esalen Massage
can be a powerful tool to enhance the skill of
touch. In this weekend retreat, surrounded by
Big Sur’s natural beauty and the healing waters
of Esalen, Perry and Johanna will teach couples
how to use massage as a source of nurturing support. The long, flowing strokes characteristic of
this approach radiate the sense of loving intimacy that is so important in a loving relationship.
With Perry and Johanna’s guidance, couples will
learn to give each other a full body massage that
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they can take home as a new tool for exploring
how to nurture their partners and their relationship. Some of the benefits of this healing art are
pain relief, deep relaxation, and an enhanced
capacity to experience pleasure.
This retreat is ideal for beginners as well as seasoned practitioners looking to share a loving,
relaxed space with their partners. Perry and
Johanna will share their knowledge of this
work, and the enrichment it has brought to
them in their togetherness. There will be plenty
of supervised, hands-on learning, as well as time
to enjoy the stunning beauty of the Esalen
grounds. Join us for this healing retreat, and
bring your willing hands and an open heart!
Week of April 10–15
Exploring Encaustic: Stretching the
Boundaries of Hot Wax
Cari Hernandez
Encaustic is a technique of painting with
molten beeswax that dates back more than 4,000
years. This lush medium delights the senses
with its gentle fragrance and enticing surfaces.
Creating with wax can be a profound experience, providing the freedom to create unique
artistic expressions through sculpture, transparency, and layering. One of the most exciting
characteristics of this medium is its range, and
this workshop focuses on projects that encourage your personal creative journey.
You will be guided through daily projects that
include panel-based painting, encaustic works
Francis Lu
The one-sided patriarchally masculine value-canon of
occidental consciousness and the fundamental
ignorance regarding the essentially different female
and feminine psychology have contributed in a major
way to the crisis of our time. Hence, understanding
the Feminine is an urgent necessity not only in order
to understand the single individual but also to heal
the collective.
—Erich Neumann (1952)
The Feminine has been imagined in film by
screenwriters, directors, actors/actresses, and
the film audience since the beginning of the
cinema. In this seminar, we will view and discuss about twelve feature films that evoke in the
participants—both male and female—aspects of
the Feminine: heroine, caregiver, waif, lover, and
anima, among others. The Feminine will be
revealed in the play of consciousness seen in
film, theater, and television shows, among other
settings. The seminar will explore female relationships with men and women, gender roles,
and gender identity through active imagination
stimulated by the films and discussion. Films
will be from the US, France, Spain, India, the
UK, and China.
Film seminars have become a tradition at Esalen
since 1987; this one will be Francis’ twenty-fifth
at Esalen, and it combines fine films, carefully
prepared handout materials, state-of-the-art
home theater equipment, and processing of the
experience through group interaction and
through personal silent reflection.
For further information, contact Francis Lu at
francislumd@gmail.com. For a description of
Francis Lu and Brother David Steindl-Rast’s
2002 Esalen film seminar on gratefulness, see
www.gratefulness.org/readings/healing_films.htm.
This seminar may be of interest to health and
mental health professionals.
Recommended reading: Apperson and Beebe,
The Presence of the Feminine in Film.
Transforming Trauma with EMDR:
Advanced Clinical Workshop and
Refresher Course (Part 3)
ment that is available during these times. We
will also identify practices that can enhance our
ability to learn from, rather than avoid or defend
against challenges. We will utilize experiential
exercises, dialogue, group work, and guided
meditation in the seminar. It is open to individuals and couples of all ages
Recommended reading: Bloom and Bloom, 101
Things I Wish I Knew When I Got Married and
Secrets of Great Marriages.
Laurel Parnell
Refresh your technique and review EMDR (Eye
Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
protocols and procedures, consult on your difficult cases, watch demonstrations, and practice
EMDR in small supervised groups. Instruction
will focus on using EMDR with complex cases,
resource development and installation, target
development, and cognitive interweaves.
This EMDR course is for participants who have
completed either Level II training or an equivalent EMDRIA-approved course.
Recommended reading: Parnell, Transforming
Trauma: EMDR and EMDR in the Treatment of
Adults Abused as Children.
Stronger at the Broken Places
Charlie Bloom & Linda Bloom
Growth opportunities abound in life. They may
present themselves as problems, obstacles, crises,
or challenges, but all of these situations offer us
possibilities to more deeply develop inner
strength, courage, compassion, creativity, and
other virtues that promote greater wellbeing, and
fulfillment in our lives. The key to being able to
exploit the growth potential of the challenges
that inevitably present themselves in our relationships and our lives has to do with the
approach we take in meeting these situations.
This process often pits us against challenges that
expand our capacities and confront us with
unhealed wounds. It invites and even compels
us to go beyond the edges of our familiar reality
and into the terrain of the unknown. Each time
we successfully move into and through these
ordeals of the heart we claim increasingly larger
aspects of ourselves, bringing us to progressively
higher levels of awareness and understanding.
This workshop will illuminate the nature of this
process and clarify specific steps and actions
that will bring about the growth and empower-
Dancing with the Spirits: Afro-Cuban
Dance, Music and Tantra Yoga
Felix “Pupy” Insua & Catherine Calderon
There is no easier way to free your spirit and
connect with joy than to hit the dance floor to a
blazing salsa tune! Experience the deep, soulshaking effects of opening the heart and body to
your internal rhythms as you respond to the
music and drums. This workshop is for people
of all levels of dance and yoga experience. The
combination of expansive, ecstatic Afro-Cuban
drumming and dance joined with the reflective,
relaxing aspects of yoga offers a powerful opportunity for freedom.
Join us to learn versions of several dances,
including Afro-Cuban rumba, salsa, merengue,
mambo, soca, compas, and sacred orisha dances.
Learn about the fascinating history of these
dances, as well as call-and-response chants to
invoke the energies of West African Yoruba
powers (orishas). Additionally, we’ll explore the
complex interrelationship between these
African spirit traditions and Tantra yoga. Each
day will include yoga poses, breath, deep relaxation, and chakra balancing techniques to help
open the body and prepare for the rising of the
spirit. Powerful ceremonies of cleansing, healing, and connecting with our ancestors, all to
the accompaniment of the drums, will help clear
out old emotional and spiritual wounds that we
may still be holding within our cells, and which
may be keeping us from fully expressing our joy
and passion through our bodies. When these
blockages are released, freedom awaits.
Abandonment to Healing: Overcoming
Your Self-Defeating Patterns
Susan Anderson
“Of all human fears abandonment is the most primal,” says Susan Anderson, a psychotherapist who
specializes in helping people overcome patterns
of self-sabotage stemming from unresolved aban-
donment. “This deep personal wound undermines self-esteem, triggers a mind/body disconnect, and interferes in your relationships.” Based
on thirty years of clinical experience and
research, Anderson provides a program of healing—exercises that act like physical therapy for
the brain to reverse the underlying abandonment
wound and overcome outer child interference.
During this workshop, participants will be taught
the five stages of grief specific to heartbreak and
loss (S.W.I.R.L.); mind/body exercises called
“Akeru” that correspond to each stage; tools that
target “abandoholism” and other outer child patterns; and neurobiological processes that underly
emotional and behavioral processes.
The workshop is interactive, emotionally safe,
and can be life-changing. Through sharing and
processing, participants commune with others
who have similar issues and gain tools for propelling them forward to achieve greater life and
love. Helping professionals can take the workshop for experiential training.
Recommended reading: Anderson, The Journey
from Abandonment to Healing, The Journey from
Heartbreak to Connection, and Black Swan: Twelve
Lessons of Abandonment Recovery.
The Art of Healthy Aging
Dennis Gates
This workshop is for those who want vibrant
health from their youth until their last breath. It
is for those who want to be as healthy as possible,
while aging gracefully. This vibrancy could be
called Vividus, meaning full of life, animated, passionate, and vigorous It is for those who want to
enjoy to the fullest, every stage of their lives,
even if they are dealing with a disability, a chronic illness, cancer, or an injury. It is for the young
and the old. It is for those who want optimum
health, with optimum participation in life. This
workshop is based on the research of Andrew
Weil, MD, Mehmet Oz, MD, The Physician’s
Committee for Responsible Medicine, and presented by an integrative medicine physician.
Experience both didactic and interactive group
sessions that will challenge your conception of
what “healthy” really means. Come prepared to
participate in physical, mental, and spiritual
exercises. Yoga is incorporated as well as meditation. You will be guided through the principles
of optimum health and aging, so that when you
leave Esalen you will have begun your journey
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to Vividus. The natural facilities and philosophies of Esalen will be used to achieve our goal.
L’chaim…To life! For more information, visit
www.optimumhealthchicago.org or contact
orthogates@aol.com.
Recommended reading: Weil, Healthy Aging;
Roizen and Oz, You, Staying Young; Ornish,
Reversing Coronary Artery Disease.
Experiencing Your Spiritual Self
John Hiatt & William Foote
Many of life’s important questions simply can’t
be figured out by using the tools of the ego.
Learn techniques for accessing different levels of
your being where useful information or insights
reside. You begin by formulating a significant
personal question and then learn two methods
for accessing information relevant to the question or its resolution. The first is the
Transpersonal Experiential, a process for going
into altered states of consciousness. This method
draws on techniques including elements from
Zen Buddhism, Vipassana, Carlos Castaneda/
shamanism, and other mystical traditions. It
does not involve rigorous exercises or the use of
drugs. It differs from guided imagery, hypnosis,
and meditation, and is best likened to a waking
dream, in which the ordinary limits of time,
space, and causality do not apply and the impossible can happen. The second method is based
on the chakra system and teaches how energy is
held and how you can use those patterns of
energy to help understand challenging or
ambiguous situations.
The leaders assist everyone in their exploration.
Spontaneity is encouraged and prior expectation
discouraged. This allows for the appearance of
something new, which is a key requirement for
change and growth. Over the course of the
workshop, we will conduct a series of exercises
using these methods and follow each with a discussion of its meaning both for our personal
process and as a window into the nature of the
universe and our place in it.
Born to be Good: The Science of
a Meaningful Life
Dacher Keltner
This seminar offers a path toward a happier,
healthier, and more compassionate life. Drawing
on cutting-edge research from the fields of posi-
56
tive psychology, evolution, emotion, and neuroscience, UC Berkeley Professor Dacher Keltner
will share research-tested methods for cultivating and sustaining positive emotions such as
amusement, love, awe, gratitude, and compassion, and he’ll explore the myriad long-term
benefits of positive emotions, from better health
to a more optimistic outlook on life. Discussions
also will include how participants can help nurture these emotions in children, spouses,
coworkers, and clients. Keltner will promote a
deeper understanding of people who experience
too much or too little positive emotion, such as
those suffering from mania, schizophrenia,
depression, or autism.
The first day will involve in-depth discussions
of the new science surrounding emotions like
compassion, awe and the sacred, amusement,
gratitude, and forgiveness. Participants will be
shown how these emotions shape our brains
and bodies, the cultural and community practices that cultivate these emotions, how essential they are to wellbeing and physical health,
and the science-tested practices and skills that
can boost these emotions, and in turn an individual’s overall wellbeing. The second day will
focus on practice, contemplation, and integrating these emotions more deeply into the activities of daily life. Throughout the workshop participants will engage in practices that activate
these emotions, from narrative exercises to various forms of contemplation.
Climate Change and Cultural
Metamorphosis
Bill McKibben & David Abram
Climate change is breaking over us: new data
shows that the ocean under the cliffs at Esalen,
and everywhere else around the world, has 50%
less plankton than in the past; last year was the
warmest year in human history. But somehow
we haven’t figured out how to talk about climate
change. This workshop, led by two pioneers in
culture and the environment, aims to address
climate change from a multifaceted perspective.
Cultural ecologist and philosopher David
Abram joins Bill McKibben, environmentalist,
writer, and activist, to explore the dimensions—
scientific, political, economic, cultural, personal—of the climate crisis, the biggest problem
humans have ever faced. David Abram writes,
“Bill and I hold in common many intuitions
regarding the way our culture (and civilization
itself ) needs to transform in order to meet the
outrageous climatological changes now afoot.
Bill is especially attuned to the immediate economic and political dimensions of such transformation, and at mobilizing people to bring
about change. I’m attuned to the long-term
experiential (and philosophical) dimensions of
what’s called for. We are both fierce partisans of
going local, of diversification, of replenishing
face-to-face, vernacular culture. We get at many
of the same things from different angles.” Bill
Mckibben writes, “We’ll explore what kind of
storytelling is effective, and where those stories
come from—within us and from our communities, human and natural. We’ll talk about enacting change, beginning with our local, oral, placebased traditions, and going straight through the
ways we’re using the internet to build unprecedented coalitions and movements.”
Ignite the Creative Genius Within: Expand
Your Role as the Artist of Your Life
Christine Ranck & Whitney Ferré
What if you could easily access your most creative and powerful state of mind? This multimedia, experiential workshop can give you an
experience of yourself that you’ve never had
before: the ability to access your most creative
flow state. It will give you tools that can activate
and make dramatically expanded use of the awesome power of your whole brain.
We are all geniuses of creation, adaptation, and
survival. The human brain is the most complex
object in the known universe. We contain the
limitlessness of the entire universe inside each of
us, yet we consciously use only a fraction of that
awesome power. The secret to thriving in a rapidly changing world is to activate and expand your
use of the infinite powers within. Quantum
physics tells us that the way we look at things literally changes what we see. We’ll explore this
idea by doing mixed-media painting (no “creative
ability” required), complemented with experiential exercises that use oscillating left-right “bilateral sound.” These processes increase the crosstalk between the right and left brain hemispheres, facilitating deep brain processing and
enhanced creativity. Art and science will be combined to connect you to your more authentic,
creative, powerful self. You can expand your limited view of existence and your role in its creation, and the canvas you create will be a personal, transformative vehicle for change.
Please download the free bilateral soundtrack
for Ignite the Genius Within from www.christin-
eranck.com and bring it to the workshop on your
iPod or other listening device.
Recommended reading: Ranck and Nutter,
Ignite the Genius Within; Ferré, The Artist Within:
A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit; Talbot, The
Holographic Universe.
($30 materials fee for canvas, paints, brushes, and
other art supplies, paid directly to the leaders)
Evidence-Based Traditional Taiji
(Tai Chi) and Qigong: Nurturing Mind,
Body and Spirit
Master Yang Yang, with John Griffin
& Robert Sheeler
Master Yang is a traditionally-trained, internationally-recognized taiji and qigong master who
has distilled essential aspects of these arts into an
easy-to-learn program suitable for people of all
ages, physical abilities, and levels of training. His
Evidence-Based Taiji™ (EBT) and Qigong program was originally designed for research interventions to yield maximum benefit in the shortest amount of time. Through lectures, hands-on
exercises, and two-person practices, Master Yang
will share foundational secrets of traditional
practice that are absent in many Westernized
forms of taiji and qigong. During this weekend
introductory course, participants will be shown
static and dynamic qigong exercises and taiji
form movements designed to nurture energy,
develop the mind-body connection, and enhance
wellbeing, tranquility, and positive thinking in
daily life. Master Yang’s teachings embody the
ultimate purpose of taiji and qigong practice:
With your whole being, develop your life.
Integrated with Master Yang’s teachings will be
the insights of two guest instructors, John
Griffin and Robert Sheeler. John Griffin, a social
change expert and Gestalt practitioner, will discuss how the nurturing of energy from a
taiji/qigong practice can heighten awareness,
deepen contact, maximize your presence in the
world, and impact the larger system within
which we all live. Robert Sheeler, a specialist in
the medical community, will discuss the pragmatic aspects of taiji/qigong such as mind-body
medicine, improvement in balance, pain relief,
immune function, and bone density, as well as
more esoteric aspects including the potential
relationship of qigong to quantum energy fields.
The leaders also are offering a five-day version of
this workshop, and welcome participants to
attend both the weekend and five-day courses.
Please see their listing for April 17-22.
The Esalen Cookbook
Charlie Cascio
This workshop revolves around the Esalen
Cookbook, compiled by Charlie Cascio, Esalen’s
kitchen manager from 1998 to 2004. Based on
the best of forty years’ worth of meals served in
the Esalen lodge, the book has re-worked recipes
designed to serve two hundred and fifty into
home-friendly recipes that serve four.
Participants enjoy hands-on work alongside
Charlie to prepare many favorite recipes from
the Esalen Cookbook in the intimate Big House
kitchen. Charlie offers instruction on basic culinary techniques, the professional use of kitchen
tools, and healthy cooking tips that he has collected during his lifetime working in the culinary arts.
The group will prepare selected recipes from
each of the nine chapters in the Esalen Cookbook.
There will be plenty of tasting along with some
meal preparation from cookbook menus. If you
have a special recipe you would like to prepare
from the cookbook, please mention it when you
register.
($25 supplemental food fee paid directly to the leader)
The “pointing out” style of instruction developed by Daniel Brown is a relationally-based
approach, emphasizing repeated short meditation sessions, with detailed instructions given
before and after each session. Leaders point out
the desired state, the way to attain it, and how to
correct the problems that typically occur.
Instructions are individualized for each student.
Susan Mickel and George Protos, both long-time
students of Daniel Brown, were trained as teachers and authorized by him to teach this
approach.
Enrollment is limited to 25 participants, and
participants must attend all sessions. Please
bring a meditation cushion, if you would like to
use one.
Self-Acceptance: The Heart of Healing
Joe Cavanaugh
The heart has reasons which reason
knows nothing of.
—Blaise Pascal
April 17–24
Mahamudra Meditation in the
“Pointing-Out” Style
Susan Mickel & George Protos
This workshop presents an integrative approach
to the practice of Mahamudra meditation, as
developed by Daniel Brown. It is designed for
everyone—those new to meditation and experienced meditators. The course begins with an
emphasis on intensive concentration meditation
according to the Indo-Tibetan Nine States of
Mental Calming/Staying, followed by an introduction to classic Tibetan emptiness meditation.
A balance of mental stabilization and emptiness
practices serves as a foundation for the “extraordinary” or essence meditation practices. Essence
meditations like the Mahamudra and the Great
Perfection assume that wisdom is an inherent
property of the natural mind that has become
obscured through conceptualization and negative emotional states. Essence meditations are
designed to access the natural state of “awakened
wisdom” through continuous, uninterrupted
mindfulness, taking the non-dual condition of
the natural mind and its spontaneous manifestations in the present moment as both the point of
observation and the object of the meditation.
We commonly hear the axiom, Love is letting go
of fear. There is, however, another possibility:
Love means loving ourselves even when we are
afraid. This applies to all so-called negative emotions: fear, anger, doubt, jealousy, and so on. We
simply cannot be who we are not. Accepting
who we are allows healing to begin. Judging ourselves, we lose sight of the deeper message our
feelings bring to us, reinforcing the very negativity we are attempting to dissolve.
“Through personal and interpersonal processes,”
Joe Cavanaugh writes, “we will see how our
judgments, beliefs, and attitudes can undermine
our self-esteem and personal effectiveness. We
will create a space to heal our wounds from the
past while enhancing our capacity for greater
love and compassion. In a context of mutual
support and safety, we will learn to accept ourselves for who we are in the present moment.
We will then discover how these so-called negative emotions were in fact angels in disguise,
guiding us toward our Authentic Self.”
This workshop is designed for all those wishing
to enrich the quality of their lives and increase
their capacity for empathy and compassion for
themselves and others.
Prerequisite: Be willing to abstain from alcohol
and nonprescription drugs for the duration of
the workshop.
57
• Create a short performance piece (5-10
minutes in length) that will be professionally
staged and performed for fellow workshop
participants
Wondrous Stories:
Writing for Children with Children
This workshop is open to people of all levels of
experience in meditation, writing, and performance.
Recommended reading: Cavanaugh, Who Am I,
Really? How Our Wounds Can Lead to Healing.
Tesa Conlin & Dave Zaboski
Have you been musing about a children’s story?
Do you have a tale or character that you want to
bring to life? Have you ever wanted to leave a
legacy of teachings to children of the world?
Isn’t it time for your story to be told?
In this lively experiential workshop, you and your
family will be guided by renowned former Disney
animator and children’s book author and illustrator,
Dave Zaboski, and National Endowment of the
Humanities award-winning writing educator, Tesa
Conlin, to reveal the story that is in your heart.
From Fixation to Freedom:
The Enneagram of Liberation
Eli Jaxon-Bear
“The great gift of the Enneagram is that it
exquisitely describes who you are not,” Eli JaxonBear writes. “It shows the veiling of true consciousness by habits of egoic identification.
When these habits of mind are revealed, there is
a clear choice to end the false identification and
realize your true nature.”
From the glow of the campfire, songs and stories
will emerge, be crafted into form, and imagined
into pictures. Finally, your family will complete
the week with a presentable mock-up book in
hand to share with family, friends, and maybe
even a publisher or two!
Eli’s model of the Enneagram provides depth,
insight, and the possibility of direct realization.
In this model, he shows nine character fixations,
and the process of seeing through these subconscious patterns to find the limitless ground from
which all patterns arise. “All fixations are the
veiling of happiness, fulfillment, and bliss with
patterns of egoic survival. Insight is the key to
freedom from all false identity. It leads to the
realization of our true nature as Intelligent
Silent Love.
Come together to play, unite, and create your
dream while producing a family treasure. This
workshop is for people with ideas, with tales to
tell, dreams to fulfill, and all families who want
to spend more quality creative time together.
(We recommend kids ages 4 and up.)
“The nine character fixations are based on the
basic misidentification of oneself as a limited and
separate ego. Using the Enneagram as a wisdom
mirror gives you the opportunity to see through
patterns of egoic misidentification to discover
both the root and the ground of true being.
We will engage in writing, drawing, painting,
photography, collage, and anything else within
reach as parents and children craft their stories
together.
($80 materials fee paid directly to the leaders)
The Me Nobody Knows: A Creative
Writing and Storytelling Workshop
Akuyoe Graham
Come put pen to paper and give new meaning to
the story that is your life. What is the story your
heart longs to tell that your lips cannot speak?
In this five-day retreat you will:
• Steep yourself in meditation and centering
prayers for your artistic expression
• Write your biography or life’s narrative—out of
which you will extract that which is
encouraging and stimulating to you
• Play fun theater games that can free you up
and open up your mind and imagination
• Unmask your authentic voice and reveal your
true artistic nature
58
“During this workshop we will use personal
exemplars, video as a teaching tool , and other
exercises to facilitate a deep insight into and
experience of each fixation. We’ll uncover the
traps and subconscious tendencies of mind that
pull us back into misidentification. Once awareness of the underlying structures that motivate
all behavior becomes clear, you have a choice to
stay true to your true self, which is love, silence,
and intelligent awareness.”
tionally-recognized taiji and qigong master who
has distilled essential aspects of these arts into an
easy-to-learn program suitable for people of all
ages, physical abilities, and levels of training. His
Evidence-Based Taiji™ (EBT) and Qigong program was originally designed for research interventions to yield maximum benefit in the shortest amount of time. Through lectures, hands-on
exercises, and two-person practices, Master Yang
will share foundational secrets of traditional
practice that are absent in many Westernized
forms of taiji and qigong. During this five-day
immersion, participants will be shown static and
dynamic qigong exercises and taiji form movements designed to nurture energy, develop the
mind-body connection, and enhance wellbeing,
tranquility, and positive thinking in daily life.
Master Yang’s teachings embody the ultimate
purpose of taiji and qigong practice: With your
whole being, develop your life.
Integrated with Master Yang’s teachings will be
the insights of two guest instructors, John
Griffin and Robert Sheeler. John Griffin, a social
change expert and Gestalt practitioner, will discuss how the nurturing of energy from a
taiji/qigong practice can heighten awareness,
deepen contact, maximize your presence in the
world, and impact the larger system within
which we all live. Robert Sheeler, a specialist in
the medical community, will discuss the pragmatic aspects of taiji/qigong such as mind-body
medicine, improvement in balance, pain relief,
immune function, and bone density, as well as
more esoteric aspects including the potential
relationship of qigong to quantum energy fields.
Participants can apply completion of this workshop toward Master Yang’s EBT teacher training
certification. For more information, visit
www.centerfortaiji.com.
The leaders also are offering a weekend version
of this workshop, and welcome participants to
attend both the five-day and weekend courses.
Please see their listing for April 15-17.
Tantra: The Art of Conscious Loving
Recommended reading: Jaxon-Bear, From
Fixation to Freedom: The Enneagram of Liberation.
Evidence-Based Traditional Taiji
(Tai Chi) and Qigong: Nurturing Mind,
Body, and Spirit
Master Yang yang, with John Griffin
& Robert Sheeler
Master Yang is a traditionally-trained, interna-
Charles Muir & Leah Alchin,
with Diane Greenberg
This is a “reset point” for couples who want to
dramatically improve the quality of sex and intimacy in their love lives and open up to more
ecstatic pleasure and spiritual connection in
their relationship.
Few of us have been blessed with healthy childhood conditioning and education regarding the
mysteries of sexual love and sexual energy. This
can leave individuals less successful and conscious in their sexuality than they are in other
aspects of their lives. Tantra transforms sex into
a loving meditation, putting more consciousness, energy, intimacy, joy, and love into sexual
exchanges.
It is time to study sex as an art form. Sexual loving is a vital skill to be mastered by every conscious individual. Sexual energy is a sacrament
that, used well, brings great harmony and joy
into one’s relationship so that love continues to
grow over the course of a lifetime, deeply bonding the partners in joyous spiritual union. This
experience offers couples ways to increase intimacy and passion in their relationship. Practices
include ways to free female sexual orgasm and
methods to increase pleasure for both partners.
Esoteric practices of kiss, movement, and touch,
along with many other exotic lovemaking skills,
are introduced in class, and then practiced in
the privacy of your own room. Discover Tantric
wisdom with insight, gentleness, humor, and
love.
Participants will:
• Explore the opportunities for transformation
presented by the challenges of peak oil,
climate change, and economic instability
• Learn key concepts of the transition model,
including permaculture principles,
community visioning, and setting up
transition groups
• Raise awareness of the need for transition
• Meet other change leaders
• Explore concepts of addiction to consumption
and oil and the psychology of change
• Establish an action plan for yourself and your
community
• Visit sustainable projects at Esalen
• Have fun!
Time for yoga, meditation, walks, communitybuilding exercises, baths, and dancing is included. Visit www.transitionus.org.
Wednesday evening program to a community
ceremonial circle and blessing.
The workshop is open to couples only and is not
designed for same-sex couples. For twenty major
media articles about this work and a free informative CD on Tantra: The Art of Conscious
Loving, visit www.Sourcetantra.com.
On and around Earth Day, April 22,
Esalen will celebrate with numerous
events, ranging from an eco-film screening and an earth-focused Wednesday
evening program to a community ceremonial circle and blessing.
Recommended reading: Muir and Muir, Tantra:
The Art of Conscious Loving, available at
www.Sourcetantra.com.
gy practice to help individuals recognize and
validate their emotions about the current environmental situation, develop practices of mindfulness and acceptance, nurture themselves, celebrate their connections to the natural world,
and most importantly, to engage in grounded
action that manifests their unique sustainability
vision and avoids burnout over the long haul.
The title of this workshop is inspired by the
final stage of the archetypal hero’s journey: Once
a hero has completed his or her trials and adventures, the challenge is to manifest the vision of
possibility brought back from the “extraordinary
world” into the “real world” of community and
society—to be a Master of Two Worlds (M2W).
Thomas will show how the M2W model can
support agents of change who carry a vision of
sustainability and who labor daily to foster their
vision in their families, organizations, and communities.
Along the way, Thomas will detail research on
the benefits of green spaces for stress reduction
and productivity, the diverse ways people understand their connections to the natural world,
how to cope with issues like global climate
change, and how the M2W perspective corresponds with research on leadership, motivation,
and resilience.
Yoga and Creative Writing
Katchie Ananda & John Robbins
Training for Transition, Making a
Difference: Creating a Sustainable
World
Every person has the capacity to live in harmony with our world and use its resources wisely.
We can each make a difference. This seminar
empowers you to make thoughtful, practical,
and joyful choices, create a compelling personal
or organizational vision and action plan for a
sustainable future, and help build resilient communities for a post-carbon world.
The converging crises of climate change, oil
depletion, and economic instability cannot be
solved separately or with technological miracles,
but by lessening dependence on fossil fuels. But
this doesn’t mean a bleak future. The heart of
transition is the belief that by engaging with
enough imagination and ingenuity to unlock
the collective genius of our communities, we
can choose a future that is more just and sustainable than what we have now.
KIM QUINONES
Kat Steele & Maggie Seeley
Master of Two Worlds: Manifesting
Personal Sustainability in Your Life
and Work
Thomas Joseph Doherty
In this Earth Day workshop, Thomas Joseph
Doherty, a specialist in ecopsychology, will
weave insights from neuroscience, environmental psychology, and mind-body health to present
a model of personal sustainability. Thomas will
share practices that he uses in his ecopsycholo-
Stretch your body. Rewrite your life. John
Robbins is the author of Diet For a New America,
The New Good Life, and numerous other bestsellers. He met the celebrated Anusara yoga
teacher Katchie Ananda twenty years ago and
they have been dear friends and colleagues ever
since.
John and Katchie each believe that there is no
right way to write or to do yoga, no “one size
that fits all.” Instead, every student has to find
his or her own individual form and style of
expression. Out of this shared understanding,
they offer a combined workshop, which will
alternate sessions of Anusara yoga with creative
writing exercises and opportunities. Participants
will get immediate and personal feedback and
suggestions from John about their writing, and
deepen their yoga with Katchie, using the five
principles of Anusara yoga. The goal is to find
one’s unique and authentic voice and dharma,
on the mat, on paper, and beyond.
This workshop is open to everyone, including
59
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
those who have practiced yoga for years and
those who have never done it before, those who
are interested in writing as a career, and those
for whom writing is simply a personal art form
or means of self-discovery. Wherever you are on
the spectrum of experience, you will find support, inspiration, and practical tools to gain
greater authorship over your life, and to more
fully and passionately inhabit your body, mind,
and spirit. Please bring a yoga mat.
The One Thing Holding You Back:
Unleashing the Power of Emotional
Connection
Raphael has pioneered a method of emotional
connection that virtually anybody can master,
and that can be learned in just one weekend. It
is grounded in both contemporary neuroscience
and the great wisdom traditions. He has shared
it with immediate and lasting results all around
the world. You can use this emotional connection to overcome lifelong struggles with career,
family, relationships, weight, self-esteem, and
addiction. This workshop is designed to help
you fall in love with every moment of your life.
It can lead to the kind of personal accomplishment you’ve longed for, and also help you serve
the world.
in nature are also shared. Families can journey
through a magical space that brings together the
natural California coast and the creativity that
emerges when a group comes together.
This workshop is designed for families of all
configurations, with children of all ages.
Children must be accompanied by an adult. If
you have specific questions please feel free to
contact the workshop leader at ivymayer@yahoo.com.
Experiencing Esalen
Esalen Staff
See program description on page 37.
Raphael Cushnir
The Magical Family
Do you have an unrealized dream? Are you still
waiting to tap your full potential?
Ivy Mayer
“Almost always, what prevents us from manifesting our greatest life vision is a reservoir of unfelt
emotion,” writes Raphael Cushnir. “Resisting
this emotion is what sabotages prayer, affirmations, or any other personal-growth technique.
Finding and feeling this emotion is what infuses
our mission with Spirit and makes us truly
unstoppable. It’s simple, but most of us never
learn precisely how—not at home, school, or
even in therapy.”
The Esalen Art Barn is home base for this weekend of play, creativity, and celebrating the renewal of spring. Families will have the opportunity
to explore, make art, and celebrate a renewed
connection with each other. There will be space
to connect as a family unit, and connect with the
larger community. There will be visual arts activities, including making puppets, magic wands,
painting, and more. Expressive arts such as yoga,
dharma games, sports, night hikes, and exploring
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Spirit Songs: Freeing Your Voice
through the Power of Gospel
Vernon Bush
In this uplifting and heart opening workshop,
you can experience spontaneous, in-themoment expression, creating a sacred space to
feel the full range of authentic emotions, giving
your dreams voice with abundant joy. Get ready
for a deep dive into rhythm, singing, and dancing from a deep spiritual place. You’ll explore the
roots of gospel and inspirational music, song
arrangement, harmony, correct breathing, soulful movement, and truly listening to yourself
and others to free the voice that is uniquely and
exclusively yours.
Vernon Bush is a singer/songwriter, recording
artist, musician, and educator who has worked
with Whitney Houston and Gladys Knight. He
is a musical director and featured vocalist at the
world-renowned Glide Memorial Church in San
Francisco. To learn more about Vernon, visit
www.vernonbush.com.
®
Gyrokinesis
Juergen Bamberger
Gyrokinesis is a movement methodology based
on circular and spiraling body motion. It uses
the natural movement capabilities of the spine
to increase the circulation of vital energies.
Gentle undulations, spirals, and waves stimulate
and activate all systems and tissues within the
body. Through rhythm and synchronized
breathing, an internal massage effect is created.
The circular movements open all joints systematically and strengthen their surrounding structures. They stretch and strengthen major muscle
groups through full body coordination. Taking
this journey through your entire body opens
your awareness to your energetic and physical
structures.
Each day starts with the awakening of your
body, followed by a full Gyrokinesis class, and
ends with meditation. Through this process you
explore the interconnection between movement, breath, sound vibration, and subtle energy
flows.
The workshop is open to all levels. It is an
opportunity for an in-depth Gyrokinesis experience taught by one of the most experienced
teachers of this system. Weather and fire-season
permitting, a sweat lodge may be offered, for
which participants will be asked to make a small
donation.
The Heart of Healing: A Transformative
Retreat for Clinicians
Alejandro Chaoul & Jim Duffy
The work of healing has never been simple.
However, the 21st century health care professional is confronted by the unique challenge of
integrating the genius of science with the wisdom of other healing traditions. Although
patients justifiably demand scientific competence, they also expect clinicians to be authentically present to their human suffering.
Sometimes this challenge seems overwhelming,
and there are escalating levels of burnout and
professional dissatisfaction among clinicians.
Unfortunately, medical education typically fails
to prepare health care workers for this challenge
and is focused more on “what we know” rather
than “who we are.” Here is an introduction for
clinicians to the inner tradition of healing, a
type of medical education that can revitalize
their spirits and renew their passion for their
work as healers.
Based on an integral approach to healing, this
contemplative approach recognizes and supports the pivotal role that the healer’s personal
resilience plays in fostering the healing of both
patients and themselves. The workshop
includes:
• Informal didactics including a review of
recent advances in the neuroscience of
compassion, empathy, meditation,
consciousness, and integrative physiology
• Guided mind-body practices including Tibetan
meditative practices and yoga movements
• Contemplative clinical skills. These simple yet
profound practices can enliven our work as
healers, even in the most challenging of
circumstances
• Facilitated conversations. Explore experiences,
challenges, and ideas with other clinicians
This workshop is open to licensed health care
professionals only.
Chinese Pulse Diagnosis and
Integrating Western and Traditional
Chinese Herbal Medicine
Brian LaForgia & Brian Kie Weissbuch
This class is designed for acupuncturists, naturopaths, and health care professionals and consists of two interpenetrating parts: Chinese
Pulse Diagnosis and Traditional Western and
Chinese Herbal Medicine. Pulse diagnosis offers
a detailed map of a person’s past, present, and
future health, and so holds the possibility of predicting and preventing disease. Yet, it is an art
that is often incompletely taught. The pulse system brought out of China by Dr. John H.F. Shen
comes from an unbroken lineage of Chinese
medical practitioners. His student Leon
Hammer has extensively elaborated this system
and replaced the lengthy traditional apprentice-
ship form of learning with a small group, experiential hands-on format. The emphasis in this
class will be on learning the six principal and
twenty-two complementary pulse positions. The
qualities found in the pulse will be identified,
described, and interpreted including the three
depths, rhythm, and rate.
Treatment with herbal medicine is dependent
upon accurate and thorough pulse diagnosis. We
will discuss Dr. Shen’s herb formulas in the context of pulse presentation and corresponding
treatment protocols. We will explore the
Traditional Chinese Medicine energetics and
indications of Western herbs; incompatibilities
and contra-indications of herbs with pharmaceuticals, food, and supplements; herb combinations; posology (dosage and administration);
phytopharmacology, pharmacognosy, toxicology
and dysjunct cosmopolitan Asian and American
species with similar properties and uses. The
plants in the Esalen garden and trails will be
introduced from the vantage point of botany
and Chinese medicine.
Recommended reading: Hammer, Chinese Pulse
Diagnosis: A Contemporary Approach.
CE credit for acupuncturists; see workshop leader.
Big Sur Wilderness Experience:
Springtime
Steven Harper & Michael Newman
Esalen is the trailhead to one of the most spectacular mountainous coastlines in the world.
With the Big Sur wilderness as the primary
teacher, participants will explore the beauty of
this alive and wild coast, from ancient redwoodforested canyons to dramatic coastal beaches,
from rugged rocky mountains to the soft grassy
slopes of the Big Sur hills. Drawing from nature
and various experiential awareness practices,
individuals will be encouraged to open both to
the natural world and to the landscapes of their
inner world. It is said that Big Sur is not just a
place but a state of mind. This wilderness experience seeks to merge mind and place, then to
embody what is learned.
Participants in this weeklong workshop will
venture out into the emerging springtime magnificence of Big Sur on five day-hikes, 4-10 miles
in length. The leader will draw from a wide
range of contemporary and age-old wisdom traditions, borrowing from psychology, meditation,
aikido, and the natural sciences to weave together a holistic experience of self and the natural
world. Each hike begins after breakfast and concludes in time to enjoy the hot springs and dinner at Esalen. Evening sessions include informal
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sharing, basic awareness practices, and useful
outdoor skills, with attention given to incorporating what is learned during the week into our
daily lives. All levels of experience are welcome.
Be prepared for the invigorating challenge of
physical activity and the opportunity to simply
sit still in quiet reflection. More information
will be sent upon registration.
($20 park-entrance fees paid directly to the leader)
Exploring Your Ocean Connections
Amity Wood & Hannah Campbell
Big Sur is home to one of the most majestic
coastlines in the world, and exposes us to the
vastness of the ocean realm. Join leaders from
Camp SEA Lab, a marine science education and
stewardship organization, for a family adventure
as we unlock the mysteries of this watery environment and take a hands-on and feet-first
approach to learning. Immerse yourself in daily
ocean experiences that can deepen your understanding and appreciation of the ocean, which
makes up 71% of the Earth’s surface and contains 99% of the living space on the planet.
Each day, we’ll investigate the ocean’s habitats,
from the rocky shores to the deep sea. In addition to spending class time at Esalen, we’ll take
field trips along the Big Sur coast to explore the
diversity of life that tide pools hold, kayak
through the magnificent kelp forests in San
Simeon, hike along a coastal watershed from the
redwoods to the sea, and discover the world of
drifting ocean creatures that play a vital role in
sustaining life in our fragile ocean ecosystems.
Throughout the program, we’ll incorporate funfilled activities for the whole family that promote personal expression, including ocean art
projects and creative writing. Learn how we all
depend on a healthy ocean by discovering the
ocean’s impact on you, and your impact on the
ocean. Explore the practice of being “blue” in
your daily lives after being filled with knowledge and experience of your ocean connections.
Open to families with children ages 6 and up.
Participants must be physically able to hike and
kayak up to 3 miles, no experience necessary.
Further information will be sent upon registration. For more information about Camp SEA
Lab, visit www.campsealab.org.
Shamanic Healing and Brazilian Spiritism
Carlos Sauer
Shamanic healing is an intuitive energy work
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that integrates various healing practices, and is
influenced by Native American teachers and
shamans from North and South America. It is a
hands-on healing tradition involving the
removal of intrusive energies, which can be
picked up from stressful environments or other
people. Special herbs such as sage, cedar, sweet
grass, bear root, and tobacco are used, along with
eagle and/or hawk feathers to assist with the
clearing and balancing of the emotional body
and the spirit. Shamanic healing helps release
energy blockages, and can bring a sense of peace
and centering to people in a process that facilitates the reconnection with the power and wisdom of the life force within.
During this workshop, participants will also
work on releasing ancestral negative patterns
and traumas that are passed through generations among many families. Participants will be
shown how to recognize these patterns, work
on healing them, and learn how to create
healthier ways for themselves and who come
after them, their descendents. Other elements
of this work include Cheyenne chants and
drumming, and sweat lodge (weather/fire season permitting).
Designed for people with previous spiritual
trainings and/or shamanic practices, this work
will be focused primarily for those with a great
interest in alternative approaches to spiritual
healing as well as for shamanic practitioners and
psychic healers. Please bring drums, rattles, and
feathers if you have them.
Weekend of April 29–May 1
Tibetan Sound Healing: A Harmony of
Meditation, Breath and Sacred Sounds
Alejandro Chaoul
Wellbeing in the Tibetan tradition is a holistic
sense of wellness that encompasses body, energy,
and mind. In this course, participants will be
shown practices that bring together the mind
and its embodied energy, supported by simple
and powerful Tibetan sounds that work with different energetic centers (chakras) to provide a
sense of embodied meditation. We will learn a
series of five healing sounds that will help you
clear away obstacles, recuperate, and retrieve
qualities and bring them into your everyday life.
By following this meditative routine, you can
subdue your “monkey mind,” as Tibetan texts
call the human tendency to run from thought to
thought, emotion to emotion, and place to place
in search of happiness. Incorporating the practices into your daily life can help you connect to
your inner wisdom and the potential to achieve
a relaxed yet aware state of mind and a healthier
lifestyle.
Recommended reading: Tenzin Wangyal
Rinpoche, Tibetan Sound Healing.
Exploring Male Friendships
Matt Englar-Carlson & Mark Stevens
The Power of Singing through Sorrow
Vernon Bush & Nancee Sobonya
This workshop explores the transformative
nature of grief through the healing power of
singing. Since the dawn of language, people
have used song to help them move through
times of sorrow and grief. Music has the power
to resonate with our soul and pluck the deep
inner strings of our emotional experience.
Drawing from different cultures of the world we
will explore the ways that singing, music, and
creative expression can be a deeply healing
medium when coping with life’s losses, one that
can lift and carry us through the mourning
process. Through the beauty of voice, song, poetry, movement, drawing, and grief sharing, we
can discover how to tap into the depths of our
inner resources, and share in the personal and
collective healing and wisdom of heartsongs
from around the world.
“For many men with busy work and family lives,
and many responsibilities, it can be hard to set
aside meaningful time to focus on one’s own
needs and growth,” the leaders write. “Our experience working with a diverse range of men has
taught us that something special happens when
men come together in a group to support each
other and connect around themes of masculinity. Many men experience a longing to feel closer
to other men in a setting that allows them to
share common experiences and stories.”
This workshop is focused on men and friendship. The stories of male friendships are quite
powerful and profound, yet often not fully
examined. This workshop, for men only, is
designed to bring to life memories and experiences of friendships with other men. Stories
past and present, and friendships lost and sustained, will find their way into the room and be
examined for their meaning and the ways they
have shaped participants’ lives. Participants will
have the opportunity, through a variety of creative means, to share stories filled with feelings
and experiences of joy, wonder, competition,
homophobia/heterophobia, pain, gratitude,
rejection, loss, curiosity, and loyalty. For those in
the helping professions, this workshop can give
insight to improve clinical awareness of the role
of friendships and connection in men’s lives.
Whether you come by yourself or with a friend,
this workshop will balance thoughtful reflection and risk taking with humor, fun, and an
enthusiasm for deepening relationships.
The Passion of Painting
Erin Gafill
risk. Creating an environment that nurtures a
sense of safety and non-judgment, Big Sur artist
Erin Gafill leads participants through visual
explorations using expressive painting, tornpaper collage, and mixed-media image making.
By eliminating all but the nonessential forms,
participants must examine what matters and
what doesn’t, what to leave in and what to leave
out, in telling their visual story. Each participant
will create a series of pieces in various media,
exploring the passion of painting while learning
new techniques for seeing, thinking, drawing,
and self-examination.
Recommended reading: Gafill, Drinking From a
Cold Spring: A Little Book of Hope.
When we are struck by the awesome, the beautiful, or the extraordinary, we are compelled to
express our feelings through making a mark,
even something as random as a stroke of red
crayon on white paper. Yet often in the act of
making this mark, we are besieged by self-doubt,
restraint, the voice of our inner critic, and the
bold and honest response is lost.
Lucia Horan
Painting with passion commits the artist to
exploring not only color, texture, composition,
and line, but love, death, the meaning of life, and
“Deep in this form we are all dancers,” writes
Lucia Horan. “Come to dance and be danced.
Move until you are moved. During our time
together we will explore Gabrielle Roth’s
5Rhythms®: Sweat Your Prayers
Dance until the dancer disappears and
only the dance remains.
—Osho
5Rhythms dance practice. It is a map of a cycle
of energy. Flowing delivers us into the realm of
the feminine. Staccato releases us into the masculine. Chaos integrates both feminine and masculine energies. Lyrical frees us to transform.
Stillness awakens our compassion and connection to one another.
“We are all searching for something in this life.
We all have a tremendous passion inside waiting
to be ignited by breath, beat, and dance. When
this fire is awakened, we pour ourselves into the
heat of the beat and let it burn away all we no
longer need. What are you ready to shed and
burn away? To dance is to sweat. To sweat is to
pray. There are many forms in which to pray.
Here we choose the form of the dance in the
temple of the body.
“In the sacred land of the Esselen Indians, we
will form a ceremonial circle. The Sweat Your
Prayers form was developed by Gabrielle Roth as
a method to practice the embodiment of the
Rhythms. We will use this method along with
art, poetry, and ritual theater to guide us in this
journey.”
Recommended reading: Roth, Sweat Your Prayers,
Maps to Ecstasy, and Connections.
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
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What’s Next? Reviewing and
Revisioning Our Lives
Sam Keen
• Where are you in your life-cycle? What have
you accomplished?
• What hasn’t happened yet? What haven’t you
done, been, or experienced?
• What have you given? Whom have you loved?
• What’s old, stale, worn-out, boring? What
destructive patterns do you repeat?
• What infantile guilt and shame lingers?
Whom have you not forgiven?
• What’s new, interesting, exciting, appealing?
• What decisions do you need to make? What
future do you see for yourself?
• What are your emerging passions? What
promises and potentials are still unfulfilled?
• What are your dreams, values, visions? Where
do you look to find what’s next for you?
Everyday Spontaneity:
Improvising Our Lives
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
Periodically, we need to review and revision our
lives. Every decade of the life-cycle brings new
challenges, goals, pleasures, and horizons. Every
crisis—divorce, illness, tragedy, success, failure,
retirement—requires us to make a new beginning, take stock of our past, and look for a new
vision to guide us toward a more hopeful future.
In this workshop, join Sam Keen to explore:
imagine themselves as improvisers. Join
Stanford professor and award-winning author
Patricia Ryan Madson, who will shepherd participants with a gentle hand and a twinkle in her
eye. Imagining can be as effortless as breathing.
Come and kindle the spark of the spontaneous
life.
Recommended reading: Madson, Improv
Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up.
Patricia Ryan Madson
“Improvising asks us not to be clever but rather
to be awake,” says Patricia Ryan Madson. “It calls
upon us to access our common-sense intelligence as well as our chutzpah. Sometimes as we
age, the world starts to become gray and serious.
We lose touch with our capacity for delight and
play. Fortunately there is a yellow brick road
back to this place of color and adventure: The
world of improvisation offers a metaphor and a
practice that can renew our vision and crack
open our hearts to unexpected insights.
The Money Vision Quest:
Transforming Your Financial Life
Spencer Sherman & Brent Kessel
Wealth managers and authors Spencer Sherman
and Brent Kessel share their methods for transforming money patterns to create peace, passion, and power around finances.
Utilizing practices and insights from the world’s
great wisdom traditions and leading financial
minds, Spencer and Brent lead participants on a
courageous journey of self-discovery through
one of the most uncharted areas of our inner
landscape.
“We will explore the terrain of saying YES, making mistakes, and learning how to work with a
partner. The games and exercises focus on seeing what is inherently real around us. Improv
teaches us to use what we have and to make an
artful life from what comes to us unexpectedly.
We will tell stories, find gifts, and above all, learn
to trust our own voices. Life lessons emerge as
we laugh, play, flounder, fall, pick ourselves up,
and help others to do so.”
The workshop is meant for everyone, regardless
of wealth level. It can help participants redesign
the way they experience, think about, earn, save,
give, invest, and spend money. It is designed to
help all participants achieve a sense of financial
freedom and ease. Exercises are experiential,
written, group, solo, spiritual, and practical.
This weekend is especially for those who cannot
Goals for the workshop include:
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• A reclamation of your childhood money
initiation and discovery of true alignment
with your values
• A clearer understanding of the powerful forces
that have shaped your financial life
• A deeper sense of security and confidence
about your future
• Improved financial relationships with their
life partner, parents, children, and colleagues
• New ways to think about spending, saving,
giving, and earning money
• A greater ability to reach your most important
financial goals
Week of May 1–6
Get Clear, Stay Clear:
Moving through Transitions
with Wisdom and Inspiration
Sheila Ramsey & Gordon Watanabe
When you face challenging situations at work or
home, do you long for clarity about how best to
proceed? Would you like the skills to face transitions in a way that energizes and enlivens you?
If so, the practical, step-by-step approach of
Personal Leadership: Making a World of
Difference™ offers a way forward. The Personal
Leadership (PL) methodology has been used
since 1994 to help us connect with our own wisdom and inspiration in times of challenge, transition, and ongoing change.
This workshop will focus on your individual
interests while engaging the group’s collective
creativity. You will be shown how to apply PL
principles and practices to your own specific situations through content-focused discussions,
integrative conversations, real-time applications,
and a powerful process technology called the
Critical Moment Dialogue. The workshop will
also include non-linear experiences such as
painting, collage, synergistic energy meditation,
qi gong, and poetry. By applying the principles
and practices of PL, you can:
• Discern “right action” in a given situation
• Sustain high motivation and deep
commitment
• Engage challenging situations with curiosity
rather than resistance
• Generate options where you previously felt
stuck
• Disentangle yourself from habits and default
reactions
PL is straightforward enough to learn in a fiveday workshop, but rigorous and substantial
enough to help you address the most complex
challenges in life. What you learn in this workshop can give you the tools to get clear and stay
clear. More information about Personal
Leadership is available at www.plseminars.com.
Recommended reading: Schaetti, Ramsey, and
Watanabe, Making a World of Difference. Personal
Leadership: A Methodology of Two Principles and Six
Practices.
Taoist Alchemy: The Spirit of Love,
Sex and Spirituality
Mantak Chia & Lee Holden
Alchemy is the art of transforming lead into
gold. In the context of this workshop, gold represents the internal state of highly refined energy (qi) that manifests as vitality, passion, presence, and love. With the guidance of
Grandmaster Mantak Chia, founder of
Universal Healing Tao, and senior Taoist teacher
and qi gong instructor Lee Holden, you’ll
explore Taoist practices that can help you tap
into the power of your own life force energy (qi)
and utilize it for health, emotional balance, and
spiritual cultivation. This workshop will introduce you to practical tools to improve your
everyday lives. During the workshop, you’ll
wake up every morning with qi gong exercises
overlooking the expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
These exercises can give you what Taoists call a
lightning flash of vitality to start your day. You
will continue by exploring different Taoist techniques for cultivating internal energy, balancing
it within, and feeling connected to the divine
spirit.
Part of this training will include instruction in
Taoist sexual practices and how to use sexual
energy for abundant vitality, intimacy, compassion, and spirituality. Although this workshop is
not designed specifically for couples, it does
address how to work with energy in relationship,
and is open to couples as well as individuals.
Awakening the Creative:
The Painting Experience
Stewart Cubley
The power inherent in painting is that it can
awaken a wild vein of passion that will not go
back to sleep. Using only the simple tools of
brush, paper, and paint, Awakening The Creative
invites you on a highly personal journey of daring and discovery, made possible through a safe
environment and the support of Stewart Cubley
and his experienced staff. The potential is to tap
into an extraordinary resource: the vibrant, driving force of your own creative spirit.
In this workshop, everyone is a beginner. You
are welcome even if you’ve never picked up a
paintbrush. The goal is free expression, with the
emphasis on the creative process rather than on
technique or expertise. Awakening The Creative
is an opportunity to embark on the greatest of
all human adventures—embracing your own
path and confidently following it. Stewart is the
coauthor of the acclaimed book Life, Paint &
Passion: Reclaiming the Magic of Spontaneous
Expression. He has traveled throughout the world
for more than thirty years working with individuals and groups to access the potential within the human heart and imagination.
This workshop may be of interest to people
from a wide variety of disciplines, including art,
education, counseling, social change, and meditative practices. All materials are supplied.
Yoga and the Act of Creation
The themes of death, rebirth, and creation are
central to and woven into the ways of yoga, from
Brahma the creator, to savasana (corpse pose), to
a still point of equanimity and calm: moments
of Being without thought.
We students of yoga have established some practices that give us a daily respite from mind and
thinking. Some call it intuition, or centeredness.
It is essentially an empty state, yet very alert,
where we tap into a field of energy far beyond
the scope of one human being. This state is full
and bulging with potential. Whether in yoga,
writing, improv acting, or art making, there is a
field of emptiness/fullness available to us. A
simple way of being is the connection point and
allows the river of prana to flow through us.
We begin each day with meditation and
pranayama (conscious breathing), continuing
after breakfast with journal writing, morning
yoga practice and an art project (pastels, stick
and ink, charcoal, and paint). In the afternoons
we’ll meet for various activities, like restorative
yoga, astrology, Thai massage, and improv
games. We’ll conclude our days on the Esalen
grounds, meeting at various locations as we
study the energy of Mother Earth and Father
Sun.
All levels of yogic and creative expression welcome. Please bring a journal and yoga mat. All
other yoga props are provided.
($20 art supply fee paid directly to the leader)
Heart of the Song: A Beginner’s
Journey into Songwriting
Johnsmith & Julie Baker
Come take your seat alongside other fledgling
songwriters as we explore the technical nuts
and bolts of songwriting. Learn to cultivate your
unique songwriting voice through writing exercises, song assignments, group performances,
co-writing, and constructive feedback, all in a
safe, supportive, fun, workshop climate. Learn
the tools of the craft: lyric writing, melody,
rhythm and rhyming, bridging inspiration, and
craft. We will support you in calling up your
inner muse, and discovering and expanding
your boundaries and edges around the songwriting process.
This workshop is for anyone who has longed
to write songs and is searching for their true
musical voice, as well as those who have written songs and are looking for a nudge to make
their songwriting more productive. Playing a
musical instrument is not required, but if you
have one bring it. Dress casually; we will do
some dancing and moving. Bring an open
heart and a curious mind. There are also
evening jams and the possibility of performing
the songs we write. For more information, visit
www.johnsmithmusic.com.
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Weekend of May 6–8
Mother’s Day Family Workshop
Joanna Claassen & Stephen Mercurio
This Mother’s Day weekend, celebrate and nourish yourself and your family. Esalen is a magical
place for adults and children alike. Together
with the Gazebo School teachers we will create a
community of families focused on fun, laughter,
renewal, and friendship. This will be a memorable weekend of exploration, connection, creative expression, and play. We will build on the
group’s interests and offer opportunities for families to work and play together and apart. We
will use the Gazebo School Park, designed for
children to climb, bike, garden, make music,
dance, and care for Esalen’s farm animals, as well
as the Art Barn for relaxing, connecting, reflecting, and creating.
On Saturday night we will offer a program for
the children, during which adults will be free to
enjoy Esalen alone or spend time with one
another. All are invited to explore and experience Esalen during this fun and supportive
weekend workshop. All ages are welcome,
including parents with small children. All children must be accompanied by a parent or
guardian.
The Power of Practice:
The Embodiment of Esalen
Pam Kramer
Integral Transformative Practice (ITP) is the creation of Esalen’s cofounder, Michael Murphy,
and President Emeritus George Leonard, distilled from their collective experience at Esalen
over the past forty years. This practice embodies
the essence of the integral movement which
these visionaries brought into the world.
This transformative, experiential workshop
involves movement, meditation, and
mind/body practices, leading you on an inner
journey to realize your inborn genius.
Each of us has an infinite capacity for creative
evolution. Our destiny may well be to evolve
our capacities to live a life that would now be
termed extraordinary. A most effective path to
our latent powers lies in a long-term practice
which integrates body, mind, heart, and soul.
The Power of Practice, led by certified ITP trainers Barry Robbins and Pam Kramer, offers the
direct experience of ITP, an exploration and
study of consciousness, and a daily practice for
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increased vitality, fulfillment, and joy. In this
workshop, you will learn about:
• Body as a wise teacher using Leonard Energy
Training (LET) exercises
• Creation of effective affirmations to manifest
healthy changes in your life
• ITP Kata, a forty-minute integration of
physical, mental, and spiritual exercises
• Balancing and centering, breathing practices,
and focused surrender
• Heartful, effective communication with
yourself and others
This workshop involves physical movement but
is not strenuous. All that’s needed is a generous
heart and a willingness to participate.
Celebrating the Feminine: Mother’s
Day Yoga and Drumming Retreat
Chandra Easton & Marla Leigh
Inspired by the mothers of the world, this workshop celebrates women’s relationships in all
forms. Through yoga, drumming, chanting,
ecstatic dance, and meditation, we will create a
special sangha, a community of spirited, musical, and radiant women. This is a perfect opportunity for mothers and daughters to share a special Mother’s Day weekend.
Since ancient times women have gathered in
sacred circles to learn, share, and celebrate life
and its mysteries. By immersing ourselves in
ancient art and movement forms, we can reconnect with this powerful lineage of women and
the sacred, divine feminine.
Chandra Easton will guide both yin (restorative)
and yang (dynamic) forms of yoga to cultivate
balance, strength, and suppleness of body and
mind. The pace of the yoga classes will be appropriate for beginners and experienced yoginis
alike. There will also be guided meditation and
chanting, and practices that empower us to
know and speak our truth.
Marla Leigh will guide us through a musical
journey that can gracefully and deeply open our
hearts. From ancient times, women were drummers in cultures all over the world. In the spirit
of this tradition, we will explore how to fully
embody the sacred feminine through music.
Utilizing Middle Eastern, African, and Indian
drumming styles and rhythms, we will create
unique drumming meditations, prayers of
rhythm, to help connect us to our core power
and creative force of empowerment.
All yoga and music levels welcomed. Open to
women ages ten and up. Drums will be provided. Please bring a yoga mat, journal, and an open
heart.
How Great Companies Get Their Mojo
from Maslow
Chip Conley & Vanda Marlow
Chip Conley, author of the best-seller Peak, leads
this weekend workshop with Vanda Marlow on
how you and your company can use the principles
of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to create a more self-actualized employee, customer, and
set of investors. Twenty-five years ago, Chip
founded Joie de Vivre Hospitality. Since then he
has developed an operating business theory based
on Maslow that suggests “peak experiences create
peak performance” and has successfully navigated
two recessions to become America’s second largest
boutique hotel company. Seeing this theory pay
big dividends, both financially and emotionally,
within his company of 3,000 employees, Chip
began to study companies like Google,
Genentech, Southwest Airlines, and Whole Foods
Market. He found that Maslow’s influence was
profound in these peak-performing companies.
To get the most from this workshop, the leaders
recommend reading Chip’s book, Peak, and coming to the workshop prepared for a lively discussion on how your company or organization
might apply the humanistic principles of the
Hierarchy of Needs to its key constituents. A
good portion of the workshop will focus on
applying Maslow in the workplace and also the
leadership skills required to create a humanistic
workplace. Participants will get a sneak preview
of Chip’s forthcoming book PEAK Leadership and
the practices it outlines. In addition, the last two
sessions will cover peak experiences and how to
integrate Maslow’s and Chip’s principles of
transformation into your personal life.
Recommended reading: Conley, Peak: How Great
Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow.
Photographing the Seasons of Big Sur
Daniel Bianchetta & Cynthia Johnson Bianchetta
Big Sur abounds with natural beauty in every
season. It is a land where the waves of the Pacific
caress the rugged California coastline, where the
sun and the fog perform their perennial dance
through magical redwood forests and over
grassy slopes.
Participants in this workshop will contemplate
with a camera the beauty of Big Sur. On Friday
night the group will meet to prepare for
Saturday’s photographic excursion by invoking
the use of photography as a tool for meditation,
healing, self-growth, and spiritual connection.
Saturday will be a time for connecting with Big
Sur in its spring attire: the wildflowers, the sunsets, the misty panoramas. On Sunday morning
the group will gather to share its creativity
together.
The weekend is simple. We stroll through the
wilds of Big Sur on hikes, soak in the natural
mineral hot springs, eat good wholesome food,
commune with ourselves, others, and nature.
With the bare attention of awareness, and
wilderness as our teacher we show up for our
life as it unfolds moment to moment. We come
into deep contact with the raw beauty of this
mysterious world.
No experience is necessary and all levels are welcome. Please bring a digital or 35mm camera
you are familiar with, a journal, and any existing
photos you want to share with the group.
The group will venture out on two hikes 2- 6
miles in length. Simple practices that encourage
awareness and contemplation (“how to be idle
and blessed”) will be shared with the group as
well as the wonders of the rich natural history
of Big Sur. No previous experience in simplicity
or nature is required. Further information will
be sent upon registration.
Free Fall! Living Life as Play
Gwen Gordon
What does it mean to live life as play? What
kind of joy, creativity, and wisdom might be possible? Most of us have been raised to think of
play as a frivolous distraction from the serious
business of living. In reality, it is the natural
expression of a liberated consciousness, the
lightness of being that recognizes the world as a
divine play and doesn’t hold back. In our play
we catch a glimpse of our unbounded, spontaneous true nature and unleash the essential joy
of Being. Learn to trust and follow the thread of
play as it bubbles up spontaneously, moment to
moment, sometimes with wild abandon, at
other times through quiet reflection and rest.
Explore a wide range of forms that embrace the
whole body, mind, and spirit, and honor its
impulses and rhythms.
May 8–15
The Artplane Painting Workshop:
Artful Life
Nicholas Wilton & Jennie Oppenheimer
This workshop is a playful exploration of the
creative image-making process. Generating
imagery inspired from our own personal stories
and life experience, we will apply fundamental
painting principles and hands-on experimentation with tools, mediums, and techniques uti-
lized in contemporary art making. We will also
explore how themes of change and spontaneity
enable us to create our own unique artwork, and
illuminate life lessons that are inherent in the
creative process. Throughout the week, we will
create a flowing series of small paintings on
wood panels, often working on several pieces
simultaneously, leaving little time to worry
about success or failure. Working in this way
helps us avoid the tendency to overly focus and
constrict creativity. We seek to engage both
sides of the brain—inviting mistakes, intuition,
and spontaneity, while also utilizing our knowledge and application of art principles. Learning
to separate our creative and analytical states of
mind invites a refreshing whirl of self-expression and creativity, where we can freely immerse
in our own investigation without judgment or
self-criticism. We will discover not only how to
create and improve upon our artwork, but also
see how our willingness to take risks and mine
the opportunities made possible by our mistakes can inform our lives. Join us this year as
we celebrate the process of inspiration, reclamation, and the journey of self-discovery through
painting.
This workshop is designed for people from a
wide variety of disciplines. All skill levels, from
professional to beginner, are welcome. For more
information, visit www.artplaneworkshop.com.
($80 materials fee paid directly to leaders
includes everything needed for the course)
This weekend romp dignifies play as a spiritual
path and unleashes its magic in our lives. This is
an opportunity to surrender to the irresistible,
contagious, unbounded play at the center of
existence, to play full out and to play with what
stops you from playing full out. It invites a total
yes! to reality just as it is. Learn about the way
play is central to the evolutionary dynamics of
both the cosmos and the psyche and how we
can bring our playful natures into every area of
our lives. Nothing is forced, everything is welcomed, and nonsense is rewarded.
Simply Wild: Experiencing Nature
Steven Harper
HANNS BECKER
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through
the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done.
—Mary Oliver
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HANNS BECKER
Your Life Cannot Be Any Easier Than
Your Movement: Cortical Field
Reeducation® and the Feldenkrais
Method®
Harriet Goslins, Sybil Krauter & Susan Jouett
How we sit, stand, move, or respond to contact
with others reflects patterns wired into our nervous systems by infancy. By early childhood,
conflicting intentions distort these patterns.
Feeling powerless, we attempt to survive and to
win love by figuring out “big people’s rules.” The
resulting strategies may protect us as children
but, deeply ingrained in our muscular postures
and movements, they imprison us as adults and
limit our choices. They remain outside of awareness, causing discomfort and limitation.
By reeducating the brain-muscle-emotion connection, restrictions in movement can be
released, freeing lifelong behaviors that have
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organized around that movement, restoring
freedom of choice. The protective postures are
altered, deeply affecting the body’s habitual
defense system and allowing a higher level of
energy.
Week of May 8–13
Soul Motion™: From Alone to All One
Zuza Engler & Scott Engler
This workshop is a relearning of the ease, fluidity, and openness taken for granted as a child and
lost somewhere along the way. It is for the
sedentary; for the active who want to increase
physical skills and reduce risk of injury; for
those dealing with aftereffects of injury or emotional trauma, and the professionals who work
with them; for the chronically tired and stressed
who want to take better care of their necks,
shoulders, and backs; and for those who want to
improve their posture, flexibility, and breathing
while deepening their sense of connection and
belonging.
This workshop is not so much an invitation to a
dance as it is an enticement to enter into a spirited engagement with life as it is unfolding in
each incandescent, effervescent, and utterly
impermanent movement moment. “We converse in this intimate affair with life through the
wordless inquiry of rising and falling, revolution
and rotation, weight shifting and shape shifting,”
writes Zuza. “The process is whimsical, unpredictable. It has its own innate rhythm and circular logic. Movement impulses arise, take form,
and dissolve. The dancer listens, allows, follows.”
“Sometimes we descend to wade in the inner
pool of sensations and feelings. We eavesdrop on
the whispers of the breath and the murmurs of
the heart, and allow the shy, tentative dance to
emerge from forgotten chambers of our being.
At other times, we ascend to soar across unlimited space, bold, expanded, and free. Meandering
together on the spiral path of the creative
process, we meet at the threshold of Mystery.”
Soul Motion is an exploration of possibilities for
living inside the paradox of self-expression and
belonging. In the process, participants move
from isolation to co-creation. Connection with
community is then effortless, necessary, and
exhilarating. Can all this happen in a mere five
days? It can happen in one moment: the
moment the mind drops into the heart and the
dancer vanishes into the dance.
The Monroe Institute’s Gateway Voyage
Karen Malik
The Gateway Voyage teaches the core practices
and principles of mental, emotional, and spiritual growth as taught at The Monroe Institute, a
non-profit training and research center located
in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
During Gateway Voyage, participants are introduced to the Hemi-Sync® technology for integrating brain functions. Hemi-Sync uses various sound
patterns that entrain brain-wave activity and facilitate hemispheric synchronization. The workshop
consists of comfortably listening to exercises that
guide participants into profoundly relaxed states,
and then progressively into expanded states of
awareness. The techniques can produce a centered,
calm, and intuitive experience, new insights, guidance, and access to one’s inner wisdom.
Monroe Institute founder Bob Monroe was able
to identify combinations of sound patterns that
can lead one into altered states of consciousness,
thus setting the stage for personal exploration
on all levels of being. He created a model of consciousness that is offered during this workshop
as a map participants can use for their personal
exploration.
There are morning, late-afternoon, and evening
sessions with participants listening to approximately five exercises per day, with discussions
before and after each one. There is a long break
after lunch for integration and relaxation.
Enrollment is limited to 16 participants. Please
bring a sleeping bag and/or blankets, and a pillow to help you be comfortable and warm while
listening to the exercises.
For more information, visit www.monroeinstitute.org.
Speaking the Soul: The Transformative
Power of Words
Kim Rosen
What happens when you merge the power of
the word with the language of the soul? Prayers,
poems, and sacred writings speak the mystery,
the silence, the unnamable joys and sorrows of
the inner life that can be told in no other way.
When you take them deeply into yourself and
speak them aloud, you may cause shifts in your
feelings, thoughts, and biochemistry that open
consciousness, aligning you with what matters
most. The simple and powerful act of creating a
deep relationship with a piece of writing you
love can change your life and the lives of those
around you.
Every prayer, poem, or chant has a medicine bag
of tools for changing consciousness and melting
the veils between worlds. Mystics, poets, and
shamans know that in the rhythms and sounds
of the soul’s language, the mind bursts open and
all levels of being come into alignment. Through
poems, prayers, and music, your authentic voice
can emerge through writing, listening, movement, self-inquiry, and speaking sacred words
aloud.
Especially in these times of global and personal
uncertainty, sacred writings and other affirmations can become companions through difficulty, a wakeup call, and a source of passion, peace,
and inspiration. When you find words you love
and take them into your life as teachers, and
speak them to others, you are giving voice not
only to the words, but to your own soul.
self into your fulcrums. Students will advance
their ability to work with expanded states of
consciousness, and a premium will be placed on
individual personal growth.
Prerequisite: Core Zero Balancing I.
Recommended reading: Smith, The Alchemy of
Touch.
Mind Games: Buddhist Meditation
for Fun and Enlightenment
Wesley Nisker
“The insights that come from Buddhist meditation do not require long and difficult hours of
sitting practice,” Wes Nisker writes. “During this
workshop we will do a series of guided meditations and reflections that point directly to the
most important insights for self-liberation. We
will focus on the evolutionary origin of our
body and emotions; practice traditional
Buddhist reflections on death and dying; examine our nature as nature; and all the while
explore the tricky delusions of mind and the
mystery of consciousness itself. In the process
we can find relief from our personal dramas and
gain a new sense of meaning in our lives.”
Zero Balancing II
The talks and discussions will present both traditional Buddhist views of self and reality, as
well as some of the latest information from evolutionary biology and psychology to support
and guide the meditations. The workshop will
include plenty of poetry, and a little crazy wisdom as well. Please bring a notebook or journal
to write in, as we will be doing some writing
exercises and reflections.
Jim McCormick
Recommended reading: Nisker, Buddha’s Nature.
This will be a special version of Zero Balancing
II. Because of the residential nature of the class
and the highly charged space at Esalen, students
will have the time and resources to delve deeper
into the spirit of Zero Balancing.
In all Zero Balancing II classes students learn
the second half of the full Zero Balancing
Protocol - amplifying and empowering the work
learned in Zero Balancing I. There is also review
of the basic ZB protocol with an emphasis on
quality of touch, focus, and positioning of the
practitioner.
In this class there is more time for individual
feedback from the instructor. The leader and
participants will devote time to creating awareness of each person’s unique energetic way of
working, and explore how to put more of your-
Hatha and Raja Yoga Practicum
Srivatsa Ramaswami
Asana practice has caught the imagination of a
number of enthusiasts—especially vinyasakrama, the sequencing art form of yoga practice.
However, yoga has other important ingredients,
all of which promote a positive transformation
of the individual. A holistic approach would
require the yogi to practice not only asana and
pranayama (the Hatha yoga aspects) but also
chanting, meditation, and contemplation of the
philosophical and spiritual aspects (the Raja
yoga aspects).
In this program, half of each session will be
devoted to different asanas, following the
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Vinyasakrama method. It will involve doing
more than about 300 vinyasas, or variations in
classical yoga poses, in the course of the program. The other half of the time will be utilized
for detailed and varied yogic breathing exercises
and the other Raja yoga practices, like chanting,
meditation, and philosophical and spiritual contemplation of the yoga sutras. The objective is
that by the end of the program participants have
a well-rounded understanding and practice of
yoga, as opposed to doing only asanas or meditation. Hatha yoga and Raja yoga are aspects of the
integrated system of yogic progression.
• Constructive critique of participant
presentations
• Teaching tools and the core exercises of the
permaculture curriculum
This course offers powerful teaching practices
gleaned from the leaders’ many years of permaculture teaching. Their experience combined
with the knowledge of permaculture teachers
and mentors from around the globe make this
one of the most comprehensive teacher trainings available.
This workshop is open to everyone. Please bring
a yoga mat.
Recommended reading: Ramaswami, The
Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga, Yoga for the Three
Stages of Life; Ramaswami and Hurwitz, Yoga
Beneath the Surface.
Anusara Yoga Journey through the
Elements: The Alchemy of Optimal
Energy Flow
Ulrika Engman
May 13–20
Permaculture Teacher Training:
Innovation in Experimental Education
Kat Steele, Benjamin Fahrer & Special Guests
Permaculture is a holistic design system for creating and sustaining regenerative human settlement patterns for healthy living. This permaculture course offers a new way to teach solutionbased, eco-social design concepts by applying
the principles of permaculture to the teaching of
permaculture. Teachers and practitioners in any
field can apply these skills and practices. This
course will cover every aspect of being an effective educator and promoter of mutually beneficial relationships for a more sustainable and just
future. By taking the approach of whole person
learning and using teaching combinations from
educators from all over the world, this course
provides invaluable information about facilitating and how to frame concepts and ideas to people from all walks of life and cultural contexts.
This course also teaches the basics of how to
administer the core permaculture design course
as well as planning and preparing for specialized
permaculture-focused workshops and practica.
Highlights include:
• How to identify learning styles and adapt to
various audiences
• Techniques to help you organize and prepare
quickly and effectively
• A comprehensive manual and DVD of
permaculture resources and teaching materials
• Course planning, marketing, and evaluation
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From a yogic perspective, the elements earth,
water, fire, air, and ether move and settle within
the body in unique combinations to give form
and expression to our individual nature.
Whether we are aware of the elements within or
not, they play a big part in how we move,
breathe, express, feel, dream, speak, meditate,
and practice each moment. Our yoga practice
can be a playground for this discovery.
Connecting to the elements through yoga practice, they can become a link between individual
and universal nature, through which optimal
energy flow opens in our practice. Alignment
arises more naturally out of the body’s wisdom
and breath flows with greater ease.
As we dive into our yoga practice with greater
elemental awareness, we’ll discover how every
asana (posture) has its own innate alchemy to
tap into for optimal enjoyment. We will practice
tuning into the gift of each asana to channel it
with greater sensitivity. The universal principles
of Anusara yoga will be taught and practiced as
the framework for our elemental experience
together. Throughout, we will also explore and
strengthen our awareness of the energetic link
between the elements and the vital organs of the
body.
Tibetan Dream Wisdom: Mobilizing
the Creativity of the Unconscious
Lene Handberg
Every night as we sleep we are offered a vast
treasure trove of information that we can use to
free ourselves from limitations and move into
greater wholeness and wellbeing. Our dreams,
rather than simply being nonsensical repetition
of our daytime experiences, are doorways into
the mystery of our inner realms and beyond,
and opportunities for transformation. Because
the dream state is an energy state, with skillful
work the possibility exists for intuitive insight
into matters that are impenetrable from our otherwise materially bound and apparently solid
reality. Acting as a guide and translator through
this unfamiliar and esoteric landscape, Lene
Handberg will present an intensive dream
course based on Unity in Duality, a program
developed by her teacher, Tibetan master Tarab
Tulku Rinpoche.
Handberg will offer an introduction to the
shamanistic dream tradition and Tibetan dream
yoga, including methods to recall dreams and
gain lucidity in the dream state along with other
techniques to help students gain facility in dealing directly with dreams for the purpose of selfdevelopment. Employing these ancient Tibetan
dream methods gives the practitioner powerful
tools to directly and radically deal with underlying emotional and psychological issues manifesting in the dream. Please bring a journal of
recent dreams.
Leadership Mastery
Gustavo Rabin
“Three things need to work well in our lives for
our lives to work well, and these three things are
all relational,” Gustavo Rabin writes. “We need to
have a good relationship with self, a good relationship with others, and a good relationship
with what we do in the world. That is the path
to deep happiness and personal fulfillment.
“While working on these three relationships,
we will seek to achieve mastery in how we
bring leadership to everything we do.
Leadership mastery is a process of personal
and professional transformation that allows us
to take the way we are in the world to the next
level. During this interactive workshop, we
can learn how to increase our visioning capacity as we develop a vision for ourselves. Then
we’ll look into how we engage others to relate
to us. Finally, the focal point will be how to
make our vision inform what we do in the
world, how to make it all happen. All of these
areas in harmony are the foundation of living
a considered, purposeful life. This class is
designed to provide a working lab environment to increase your leadership mastery in all
facets of your life.”
An Insider’s Guide to Your Partner
and Relationship
Stan Tatkin
“There is perhaps nothing more difficult than
another person,” says Stan Tatkin, clinician,
researcher, teacher, and developer of A
Psychobiological Approach To Couples Therapy®.
“People are complex to be sure, and they never
come with manuals that automate the process of
getting along with them. And even if we did have
general manuals we aren’t robots. What works for
one person won’t necessarily work for another.
But neither does it work to fly blind, as many
couples do, and expect relationships to simply fall
into place. Hence the need for an insider’s guide
to your partner and relationship. This workshop
will demonstrate general principles to help you
understand what makes a relationship successful,
and how to work toward that with your partner.
During this weekend of teaching, interacting, and
experimenting, we will come to understand how
we and our partners really work and begin to
construct a specific owner’s manual for you and
your partner.
Sometimes a blank page can seem daunting as
we begin. Learn how to create a preliminary
abstract environment of marks and shapes that
then interacts with the figure you draw on the
same page. This interaction can be a means to
unleash pure artworks–whether ink, mixedmedia drawings, or water-media paint sketches.
Nontraditional tools and techniques will be
emphasized along with a variety of strategies to
promote a more vigorous artistic response within your art practice. Prior experience working
with the human anatomy as artistic subject is
helpful but not required. A supply list will be
sent upon registration. For more information,
visit www.beaulerugglesgraphics.com.
Recommended reading: Herrigel, Zen in the Art
of Archery.
The Embodied, Systemic Group: Body
Awareness and the Group Field
Rae Johnson & Dyrian Benz, with JoAnna
Chartrand
The group process moves members from isolation toward finding solutions through collaboration. This course focuses on understanding and
working with groups from a somatic systemic
perspective. From a systemic view, each group
member is regarded as a person in their own
right as well as a member of the group field. This
systemic perspective supports the individual
expression of differences without losing the context of connectedness and collaborative productivity. Through the differentiation and integration of differences (in opinions, interests, goals,
and so on) both the individuals as well as the
group as a whole evolves and develops. From a
somatic perspective, this process of navigating
differences and collaborative problem-solving is
understood to occur not just through verbal
exchanges, but also through our nonverbal interactions—posture, gesture, eye contact, and the
use of space. Exploring these embodied interactions through somatic awareness and other
body-based interventions brings to life this hidden but important dimension of group work.
Pen in hand, liberate the figure studies already
residing deep within your heart. Harness the passionate energy of black India ink using primitive
pens we will fashion ourselves from wooden dowels. These ancient and handmade tools encourage
a higher level of creative risk-taking. Enjoy ample
studio time in community with others, observing
the miraculous human anatomy and transforming those observations into your own artworks
that reveal and release the human spirit.
This course will be of interest to group leaders
who want to enhance their understanding and
skill in addressing the unspoken embodied
dimensions of group process and dynamics in
the context of a systemic perspective, as well as
any group facilitator wanting to build competencies in working with groups. The group will
learn through its own interaction and development as a group, as well as through discussions
and exercises.
“Whether you are currently in a relationship or
not, this workshop will teach you about the fundamental biological realities of human bonding
and the psychobiological particulars of your
partner. If you are in a relationship the tools you
will be shown will be invaluable, and ready to
use immediately in your relationship. If you are
not currently in a relationship, this workshop
will help prepare you to choose your next partner and help you to construct a safe and secure
long-lasting relationship.”
Week of May 15–20
A Bottle of Ink, A Wooden Pen and
Thou: Expressive Figure Sketching
A Psychobiological Approach to
Couple Therapy®
Stan Tatkin
In this workshop for counselors and other
healing professionals who work with couples,
Stan Tatkin will introduce a new approach to
individual and couple therapy. A psychobiological approach focuses on early attachment
and its effect on brain and nervous system
development, as well as specific neuroendocrine issues related to interpersonal stress.
Couples most commonly enter therapy due to
repeated, anticipated, and intense periods of
mutual dysregulation whereby attachment
injuries and adaptations become reanimated.
In order for attachment theory to be most beneficial, the psychotherapist must incorporate a
working knowledge of the neurobiological
processes that underlie all primary attachment
relationships.
A psychobiological approach tracks fine
moment-by-moment shifts in the body, face, and
voice. During sessions, clients and counselor sit
on adjustable chairs with wheels to allow freedom of movement and the ability to track those
movements. The counselor is looking at two
nervous systems interacting with one another,
and the fast-acting non-conscious biological systems that are constantly operating in response
to another person. By tracking these systems,
counselors can see the patterns that partners
bring to the “couple table” from childhood. High
definition video and frame analysis is used for
purposes of intervention, research, and teaching.
Utilizing experiential, didactic, and multimedia
presentation formats, Tatkin will lead attendees
through the basics of this innovative psychobiological approach.
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The Purposeful Evolution of
Consciousness
Michele Hébert & Mehrad Nazari
Consciousness is the key to our successful growth
and continuing survival as a species.
—Jonas Salk
Immerse yourself in the ancient practices of
yoga for a deeper connection with your true
nature. Create a sacred community of seekers to
evoke the individual and collective consciousness, in order to awaken and live to the fullest.
In the Raja yoga tradition, meditation is seen as
a systematic method that leads one from lower
levels of awareness to the highest and most subtle state of consciousness. This yoga and meditation retreat is dedicated to consciously enhancing your creativity and joy through the multidimensional practices of Raja yoga.
Through meditation and reflection on the light
within, your authentic self can guide you toward
a deepening clarity of your mission and purpose. Morning sessions introduce a mindful
yoga practice to balance and release tension
from the physical body, so the mind is free to
dive inward in meditation. During afternoon
and evening sessions, we’ll explore the inner
practices of yoga as they relate to a meditative
experience. Also we’ll enjoy a special morning
silent hike on the majestic Big Sur coast.
If you are a practicing meditator, this retreat can
deepen your practice. If you are new to meditation, it can provide guidance and insight into
deeper aspects of yourself. Please bring a yoga
mat and meditation cushion if you have one.
Chairs will be available for sitting.
Walk on the Wild Side:
Hiking the Big Sur Country
Steven Harper & Michael Newman
“What’s the quickest way out of the city?” John
Muir is reported to have asked a stranger on the
street of the metropolis in which Muir had just
arrived. “Where do you want to go?” the man
asked. “Anywhere that is wild,” Muir replied.
This week is straightforward. You day-hike the
mountainous paths into the wilds of Big Sur,
breathe in the fresh mountain air, and soak in
Esalen’s natural hot springs overlooking the
waves of the Pacific—in short, you let yourself
touch and be touched by Nature.
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places
to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal
and cheer and give strength to body and soul,”
said Muir. Drawing from various wisdom tradi-
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tions, the group will be introduced to practices
that encourage openness to self and nature. As
Muir discovered, “I only went out for a walk,
and finally concluded to stay out till sundown,
for going out, I found, was really going in.”
Hikes (3-10 miles in length) begin after breakfast and finish in time to enjoy the hot springs
and wholesome food of Esalen. Participants
should be prepared for the challenge of invigorating physical activity as well as the opportunity to simply sit still in quiet contemplation.
More information will be sent upon registration.
Muir wrote, “The mountains are calling me and
I must go.”
The Art of Essential Touch:
An Esalen® Massage Retreat
Ellen Watson & Robin Fann-Costanzo
Ellen Watson writes, “Esalen Massage is a healing art form, evolved over forty-five years at
the Esalen baths. Influenced by the rhythms
of the Pacific, this form of touch engages all
the senses and offers deep release and relaxation to both giver and receiver. This workshop invites participants to explore the world
of essential touch through the gentle guidance
of teachers with many years of experience,
who will offer the basic principles of their
work: grounding and centering, moving from
the core, quality of touch, and using breath to
bridge the connection between giver and
receiver. One of the key elements of this art
form is tapping into the flowing, creative energy present in a living body and letting one’s
massage style emerge from that experience.
The teachers will include techniques, especially the Esalen signature moves, along with
deeper work. There will also be time spent in
the Esalen baths, combining herbs from the
Esalen garden with the hot mineral water to
cleanse and tone body and spirit.”
This retreat is open to beginners and experienced bodyworkers interested in learning new
and creative approaches to massage. Please bring
your favorite music for movement and massage,
and bring loose, comfortable clothing.
Recommended reading and viewing: SteindlRast, A Listening Heart; Ackerman, A Natural
History of the Senses; Esalen Massage DVD;
Watson, Wake-Up 101, The Art of Essential Touch
DVDs.
May 20–27
Wisdom Healing Qigong™
Mingtong Gu
The purpose of this retreat is to cultivate
Wisdom Healing Qigong, a profound and effective system of healing and empowerment that
integrates gentle movement, sounds, visualization, and meditation into a systematic synergy
of all dimensions of your being.
By participating in this retreat, you can:
• Learn to clear and balance the emotions so
that a deeper healing can occur
• Develop a quiet and creative mind to realize
healing most effectively
• Learn the ultimate method to transmit chi
(the formless energy from which all forms of
life are made) for healing self and others
• Organize a chi field and learn group healing
• Learn theories and practices for energy
healing, and better understand your healing
capacity
The practices you will be taught are based on a
natural healing process that was developed by
Dr. Pang Ming, founder of the world’s largest
qigong hospital in China, Zhineng Qigong
Center. Over two decades, this hospital documented the treatment of over 200,000 people
with all types of illnesses including cancer,
autoimmune disease, strokes, depression,
insomnia, and headaches and found a 95% effective improvement rate.
The daily program includes intensive qigong
instruction and practice along with group healing sessions and healing instruction.
The retreat is designed for people who seek a
direct path for deep healing, including those
with serious physical or emotional diseases,
caregivers, healing professionals, and anyone
who simply wishes to work for the awakening
of healing and human potential within themselves.
Anatomy ABCs: Tips and Techniques
to Build Your Figure Mastery
Have you always wanted to learn how to draw
the human body? Our daily sessions will pro-
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
vide the foundational building blocks of figure
drawing. We will focus on techniques to help
develop observation abilities, improve structural
knowledge of the body, and strengthen the relationship between intention and technical mastery.
The study of the human form is a spiritual experience—an act of trust between model and artist.
The model disrobes so the artist can gain experiential knowledge and employ that knowledge
within his or her art. What the artist learns is
not simply the anatomical structure of that specific human body, but something far more
important: the artist learns what it is to be
human—to be weary, to feel anger, to strain under
a heavy load, or to yearn for another person.
As we draw, our empathy grows. We cannot help
but ache with those raised arms, grow concerned with that quivering heel, or tense ourselves along with that rigid back.
By such study we know with the greatest intensity what it is to be human, and we possess the
ability to share the human story. All artists are
welcome, no matter figure skill level, and are
invited to participate in these valuable lessons
that can help you move toward your goal of
increased figure mastery.
Recommended reading: Hamm, Drawing the
Head and Figure; Franck, Zen of Seeing: Seeing
Drawing as Meditation.
($50 model and art supply fee paid directly to the leader)
Mindfulness in Deep Relationship:
On the Sources of Nourishment
Jerome Front
This retreat invites participants to open to their
most elemental relationship, that which exists
between the body, mind, and the natural world
as it manifests through eating, food, and our
senses. This inquiry will then widen to include
the deep nourishment we receive from being in
mindful relationship with each other. “As individuals, we all know the hungers and unrequited longings that coexist at emotional, spiritual,
bodily, and relational levels,” says Jerome Front.
“Fortunately, these basic needs also form our
common human ground. Opening to these primal shared areas with a loving awareness can
create profoundly satisfying aspects of deep rela-
tionship. These nourishing and transformative
relational experiences include understanding
and being understood, a sense of increased personal presence, and the soothing, releasing, and
integrating experience of letting yourself be
known in another’s accepting, warm presence.”
During this retreat, participants will taste a
fuller range of being alive, experience ways of
belonging and open to the nourishing possibility of being at home, more regularly, within the
moments of life. Retreat topics include:
• The embodied mind and spirit: Western and
Eastern views
• Interconnectedness of self, other, and the
cosmos
• Creating resonance, attunement, and empathy
Participants will experience sensory work, group
sharing, silent meals, music, ritual, poetry, deep
relaxation, and instruction on mindfulness meditation. Teachings and activities will alternate with
periods of intentional silence. Open to everyone,
this retreat is an especially rich resource for helping professionals, teachers and nurses.
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DANIEL BIANCHETTA
Biodanza® Vital Development:
The AbunDance of Life
Jaquelin Levin
Fall in love with life as you journey into the sensuality of being. Biodanza Vital Development:
The AbunDance of Life is a dynamic, vital, and
joyful dance form with healing and transformational benefits. It is an integrative movement
system of human potential aimed at organic renovation, reeducation in love, and a relearning of
the original functions of life. Enjoy music,
dance, emotion, voice, and encounters within a
safe group setting. Biodanza Vital Development
is a scientifically sound method proven to
reduce stress, release emotions, promote wellness, and establish holistic homeostasis.
Through creative expression we learn to understand, embrace, and to manage our emotions
while seeing ourselves and the other with compassion. Dances are non-choreographed and are
designed to induce a “vivencia” (an intensified
experience of the here and now) in order to
express an authenticity of identity from the root
of our cells.
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Explore the primordial essence of life as we
journey through our Vitality, Creativity,
Sensuality, Affectivity, and Transcendence.
Biodanza Vital Development creates community
and consciousness by building sustainable lives,
relationships, and a capacity for adaptability.
Everyone is welcome to come and experience
the fullness of being, to surrender to the music,
the human community, the cosmos, and become
the AbunDance. For more information, visit
www.biodanza-dancesoflife.com.
The Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of
Cross-cultural Shamanism
Oscar Miro-Quesada
Participants will be escorted through the inner
Doors of Perception, and into the fascinating
world of shamanic vision, power, and spiritual
healing. Here they can experience sacred trust
in the Great Originating Mystery, engage the
transformational powers within creation, and
immerse themselves in the soul-restorative
shamanic reality of Pachakuti Mesa cross-cultural shamanism.
A seasoned navigator of non-ordinary states of
consciousness, Don Oscar will guide participants into visionary realms, where multi-dimensional powers and forces are available for the
healing of self, others, and the planet. The
Pachakuti Mesa, like all traditionally consecrated ceremonial altars, offers an experiential initiation into the ancestral shamanic healing arts of
Peru. Participants will have the opportunity to
witness and experience core wisdom teachings:
viaje con sombra (magical flight); vista en virtud
(spiritual sight); rastreo (divination); and florecimiento de Ser (blossoming of Self ), derived from
traditional Kamasqa Curanderismo.
Choosing to embrace such an earth-honoring
shamanic path of healing service often unites
the personal and the transpersonal, the known
and the unknown, the I and thou, into a profoundly mythic life of experience rather than
belief, unity rather than separation, and love
rather than fear. We invite you to join this celebration of life as a sacred gift, and help shapeshift the many common ills associated with
“modern” living.
Please bring a ceremonial ground cloth no larger
than 36” x 36”, your favorite stone or crystal, a
shell, feather(s), a cherished shamanic power
item, a sacred sound maker, a journal, and something comfortable for sitting on the floor,
though you also may sit on a chair.
Living Deeply: The Art and Science
of Transformation
Cassandra Vieten & Constantine Darling
We are each always changing, always growing.
But sometimes we encounter moments or periods of life that are so potent, and so full of potential, that they transform our consciousness, fundamentally shifting our worldview, our motives
and priorities, and how we relate to ourselves,
others, and the world. Where we have been limited, we expand. We become more open, balanced,
and aligned with our true values. Compassion for
self and others arises more naturally.
For more than a decade, research at the Institute
of Noetic Sciences has examined how these
transformations happen and how they can lead
to greater meaning, joy, and purpose. No matter
who you are, where you come from, or what
your current transformative path is—whether
you seek to transform your life completely or
simply make adjustments to add richness and
depth—learning more about the terrain of consciousness transformation can not only give you
a map, but also can help you become the cartographer of your own journey. Using lecture,
video, discussion, creative process, and deeply
embodied experiential play, we will weave scientific findings together with wisdom from the
world’s spiritual traditions and your own
authoritative wisdom to explore deep shifts in
consciousness, and how they can be integrated
into everyday life.
Current Trends in Esalen® Massage
and Bodywork
Ellen Watson & Vicki Topp
This workshop is an invitation to explore and
experience current trends in Esalen Massage
and Bodywork. During the weekend, attention
will be focused on various ways to:
• Sensitively and comfortably work at deep
levels
• Utilize both active and passive movement to
enhance effectiveness
• Develop a deeper understanding of the terms
listening, balance, and integration
The workshop leaders will offer techniques that
participants can easily incorporate into existing
personal styles. Unusual, interesting, and fresh
aspects of Esalen Massage will also be introduced, which will expand technique repertoire
and inspire creativity and innovation.
Sessions will include plenty of personal attention and assistance to support the process of
learning. Come prepared to touch and be
touched by the beauty, power, and spirit of
Esalen and the Big Sur coast. All levels of experience are welcome.
Week of May 22–27
The Upledger Institute’s CranioSacral I
Eric Moya
CranioSacral therapy is a gentle, noninvasive,
hands-on technique to help detect and correct
imbalances in the CranioSacral system that may
cause sensory, motor, or intellectual dysfunction. It is used to treat a myriad of health problems, including headaches, neck and back pain,
TMJ dysfunction, chronic fatigue, motor coordination difficulties, eye problems, endogenous
depression, hyperactivity, and central nervous
system disorders.
Participants will learn the detailed anatomy and
physiology of the CranioSacral system, its functions in health, and its relationship to the disease
processes. Half of the class time will be hands-on,
developing the sensitive palpatory skills needed
to detect subtle stimuli in the human body.
Class material will concentrate on palpation and
its potential as an evaluative and therapeutic
process; fascial and soft-tissue release methods;
and the pressurestat model which explains the
mechanism of the CranioSacral system.
Participants will learn a ten-step protocol for
evaluation and treatment of the entire body. By
the end of this intensive program, participants
will be able to identify and localize significant
restrictions and imbalances in the CranioSacral
system.
Please note: Registration for this workshop is
through The Upledger Institute only. Please call
1-800-233-5880.
Recommended reading: Upledger & Vredevoogd,
CranioSacral Therapy (chapters 1-6); Upledger,
Your Inner Physician and You.
Experiencing the Esalen Farm
and Garden
Benjamin Fahrer & Peter Huff
Have you ever wanted to know how to grow
your own food? This dynamic five-day experience gives you the opportunity to fully participate in the Esalen Farm and Garden alongside
our talented and experienced staff.
In this day and age, local food security is a major
issue facing communities worldwide. It is said
that there is no greater form of activism than
growing one’s own food, no greater sense of connection to the land than sowing, cultivating, and
harvesting from the earth that sustains us. This
is the essence of SLOW food (Sustainable, Local,
Organic and in respect to the Wild) and through
it we come into a deeper relationship with and
celebration of the whole process.
By participating directly with the Esalen Farm
and Garden crew, you will experience the realities of what it takes to make a garden thrive.
Days will begin with the morning harvest and
hands-on experience with composting, seed
starting, cultivation, irrigation systems, transplanting, companion planting, and biodynamic
farming techniques. Afternoon and evening sessions will look deeply into specific questions
and topics of interest.
From a seed planted with intention the world
can change. Come learn how to participate in
the amazing cycles of the season in the garden.
The Gifts of Grief
Nancee Sobonya & Steve Waldrip
I saw Grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out,
“It tastes sweet, does it not?” “You’ve caught me,” Grief
answered, “and you’ve ruined my business. How can
I sell sorrow, when you know it’s a blessing?”
—Rumi
Explore the powerful and mysterious nature of
grief. After viewing Nancee Sobonya’s film, The
Gifts of Grief, we inquire into our relationship to
loss and its potential gifts. In the film, Isabel
Allende and six other remarkable people share
their journeys through their personal losses.
Each come to different realizations of the gifts
they have gained by living with grief.
“Because each loss is unique, our grief can be
experienced in a variety of ways,” write the leaders. “Loss is also universal, even though people
often describe feeling alone or on a new journey
without a map. In this workshop we discover
how to navigate this new terrain and orient to
that light inside that can draw us forward. We
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explore various outer resources that sustain us,
as well as those inner places where we find
strength, love, connection and support. What
are we learning from our losses? This question,
along with others, is asked as we explore the
possibility that grief, while very painful, can also
be a doorway to growth, insight and transformation.
“There will be opportunity to go through this
doorway and delve into the mysterious depths
of grief, personally and collectively. Through the
sharing of our personal stories, meditation, poetry, artwork, movement/yoga, and ceremony, we
create an environment in which our grief will
be honored and held as sacred. Everyone is
encouraged to bring photos and other objects of
remembrances to place on a group altar that we
will create in the course of the workshop to
honor our losses.”
Art as a Spiritual Path: Paintings
that Awaken the Soul
Paul Heussenstamm
The practice of painting is healing and meditative. No experience is necessary as we transform
our everyday consciousness into the inner artist
that lives in each of us. The week is designed to
introduce the possibility that you are an artist
and that the artist path is one of joy, insight, and
awareness. It’s amazing that in just a few days,
you can finish a colorful painting that reveals
many of the deep inner patterns that connect
you with your soul. After seeing mandalas made
during Paul’s workshop, Eckhart Tolle commented, “These paintings carry a healing presence.”
Deepak Chopra said, “These paintings are archetypal manifestations of higher consciousness.”
After the workshop, you will have the foundation for painting sacred art and mandalas at
home, as you continue on this path of self-discovery and the newfound relationship to art and
your soul.
Recommended reading: Heussenstamm, Divine
Forces: Art that Awakens the Soul.
Couples’ Communication Retreat
Warren Farrell
Our inability to handle personal criticism from
loved ones is a common Achilles’ heel. The more
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deeply we are in love, the harder it is to handle.
Soon, couples feel they are walking on eggshells,
unable to express themselves honestly, and the
love fades. Raising children and dealing with
money during an economic recession magnifies
the problems even as those problems become
the reason couples stay together. The result?
Couples often remain legally married but psychologically divorced—in a minimum-securityprison marriage.
The biggest culprit in this dynamic is defensiveness. Active listening, a good solution, is rarely
used. Warren Farrell developed Cinematic
Immersion, a method that enables couples to
actively listen to their partner without feeling
defensive. Once defensiveness is replaced by
feeling loved, work on the discipline of mutual
appreciation can begin. Through this process,
passion is reignited without sacrificing stability.
As couples master Cinematic Immersion and
the discipline of love, they will be shown how to
apply what they’ve learned to other family members and to work colleagues.
This workshop is for couples. A couple is any
two people who have a history together (such as
parent-child, siblings, married or divorced parents) and who want a future with improved
communication.
Required reading: Farrell, Women Can’t Hear
What Men Don’t Say, chapters 1-3.
Mind, Mood and Happiness:
Meditation and MindBody Healing
Methods include:
• Developing skills for accessing the resources
of the core self
• Utilizing the unconscious for activating
internal healing resources
• Meditating and practicing psychological skills
to promote insight
• Exploring natural mind/body healing
rhythms (yogic and somatic breathing
methods)
• Discovering Buddhist psychological antidote
remedies for unpleasant or painful states of
mind
• Discussing mind, self, dissatisfaction, and
happiness from Western and Buddhist
perspectives
• Discovering practices that promote lovingkindness
Recommended reading: Alexander, Wise Mind
Open Mind: Finding Purpose and Meaning in Times
of Crisis, Loss and Change; Fryba, The Art of
Happiness: Teachings of Buddhist Psychology;
Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.
Forgiveness and Intimacy:
A Time of Acceptance
Mary Goldenson
All life is about relationships. Creating an alive
and honest connection with an intimate partner
requires us to go deeply into our hearts and
allow the courageous self to emerge. This journey to intimacy begins with the path of forgiveness. How does forgiveness lead to intimacy?
Ronald Alexander
People can learn to change their thinking and
behavior in ways that enhance happiness and
wellbeing. For 2,500 years, the wisdom teachings of the East have utilized what their texts
refer to as “skillful methods” for the study and
transformation of the mind/body. These meditation and visualization practices help cultivate
self-regulation through awareness, concentration, mindfulness, and other attention skills.
This leads to clarity of mind, spaciousness of
self, and greater compassion.
Using techniques from modern positive psychology, mindfulness, creative thinking and
non-dual teachings, participants will learn skills
to calm the mind, regulate mind/body states,
develop trust with the unconscious, and explore
inner resources for activating creativity, vitality,
and wellbeing.
• It allows us to let go of anger, resentment, and
grief
• It allows the agitated mind to move more
deeply into the healing heart
• It resolves separation from ourselves and from
others
• It allows us to complete unfinished business
The workshop will present ways to help complete the past, be open to the present, and create
the future. It will offer a safe, supportive environment that will include taking risks, intense
bodywork, Gestalt imagery, dance, and meditation.
This workshop can be especially helpful for
those dealing with boundary issues, the effects
of a dysfunctional family life, or addictions that
have been used as a defense against intimacy. It
is appropriate for everyone: individuals and cou-
ples, mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons, and
healing professionals. The workshop may have
up to 34 participants.
Family Mindfulness Retreat
Ivy Mayer, James Baraz & Heather Sundberg
Imagine a beautiful and protected space that
supports you to mindfully turn within and find
greater ease, and gives you space to play and just
be with your family—all held in the dramatic
natural surroundings of Esalen. This family
retreat offers time to unplug from the busyness
of life and find meaningful reconnection within
and without. We will have time together as a
group and time when adults and children meet
separately. Adult meditations will support quieting the mind, opening the heart, and being present to the beauty and challenge of life. Within
this we’ll include time for discussion about making our family life an integral part of our spiritual practice. The children’s meetings will utilize
Esalen’s beautiful natural setting (including the
Gazebo Park School with its animals and gardens), and games to introduce mindfulness and
kindness in enjoyable age-appropriate ways.
This program is open to families of any configuration or spiritual background, with children
ages 5-13. Children of different ages may be
allowed with the permission of instructors.
Please contact ivymayer@yahoo.com with any
questions. A portion of the proceeds from this
workshop will benefit the Gazebo Park School,
an open air school for infants and children on
the Esalen grounds. Join us for fun, play and
connection as we learn to be more present with
our families and with ourselves.
Week of May 29–June 3
Women’s Lives in Pieces
Patrice Vecchione
What would happen if one woman told the truth
about her life? The world would split open.
—Muriel Rukeyser
Come celebrate women—who we are and all we
do. Celebrate yourself! Give form to the multifaceted pieces of your life and hold them up to
the light, while welcoming the shadows. Hear
the sound of your own voice as never before.
Make of the details of your life stories into
poems, prayers, and dreams. What does it mean
to be born female and living in the 21st century?
Where do you derive meaning? In community,
we’ll explore the details of our lives—childhood,
identity, body image, relationships, legacy, and
the natural world. Find inspiration from writing
and art by women throughout history and from
around the world. The first poem ever written
down that was found extant was written by the
priestess Enheduanna, in 2300 BC, Persia. We’ll
start there and move forward to our own time
and into the future with our hopes for the next
generations. This is a workshop for those who’ve
dreamed of writing and those who always have.
Land of Milk and Honey:
An Introduction to Farmstead Arts
Charlie Cascio & Liam McDermott
Would you like to reconnect with farmstead traditions and develop your ability to produce and
prepare your own food? Cheese and bread making, beekeeping, food preservation, and smallscale animal husbandry all are appealing and relevant to those who thrive on food independence, artisan techniques, and self sufficiency.
In today’s society, many people have lost the
knowledge that humans used for thousands of
years both to connect with nature and feed
themselves. This hands-on workshop is an introduction to and celebration of the farmstead arts
that actually are alive and well all around us.
Join Charlie Cascio and Liam McDermott as
they share their knowledge of the art of home
cheese making, including recipes for hard and
soft cheeses, and cheese molding and pressing.
Bake sour dough and yeasted breads, and
explore basic beekeeping and honey extraction
at the Esalen bee hives. Food preservation methods include dehydration, fermentation, and root
cellar cold storage.
There also is a field trip to Sweetwater Farm, a
small goat dairy in the Big Sur Mountains,
where participants will observe an active dairy
and cheese making operation.
Experience the alchemical process by which
milk is transformed into an extraordinary diversity of cheeses, flower nectar yields different
varietals of honey, and flour, water, and yeast
join to become bread.
Please note: Bring a heavy long sleeve shirt and
denim-type pants for bee work.
($30 supplemental fee paid directly to the leaders
for basic beekeeping equipment including hat, veil,
and gloves, which the participants will keep)
Christine Price
The Way, when declared
Seems thin and so flavorless.
Nothing to look at, nothing to hear—
And when used—is inexhaustible.
—Lao Tzu
made primary relative to action, Gestalt
Awareness Practice has a strong relationship to
some forms of meditation. This form is similar
to some Reichian work as well, in that emotional and energetic release and rebalancing are
allowed and encouraged.
The emphasis is intrapersonal rather than interpersonal. Participants are not patients but persons actively consenting to explore in awareness. The leader functions to reflect, clarify, and
rather than adjustment, cure, or accomplishment. The workshop will utilize group exercises,
meditations, and discussion. The format combines introductory group work with the open
seat form in which each participant will have
the opportunity to work with the leader in a
group context.
Liberating Your Essential Self:
The Alchemy of Love and Aliveness
Deanna Darby
There is a deep desire in all of us to know ourselves, to live and love from our most essential
nature. For most of us, painful and frightening
experiences have caused us to withdraw from
living fully. We can feel undernourished, disconnected from our lives and from those closest to
us. We want to experience our full aliveness, but
we have become too anxious, depressed, or
numb. This yearning to love, to experience more
freedom and joy, is an invitation to slow down
and discover your true self, your essential
nature.
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In this workshop we will embark on an odyssey
of self-discovery, exploring the play, pauses, and
natural pulses of the body, and finding out that
barriers and blocks can simply melt away.
Through our senses we can be carried into a
deep relationship with our true essence. As we
quiet the mind and listen to the body, we can
discover our own organic ways of responding
that heal our inner pain, and help us rediscover
the richness of life. We will use deep listening
and awareness exercises to uncover the treasures
of our unique body wisdom. Through dance and
movement, silent and dynamic meditations,
healing practices, and group processes, we can
come alive to our inner topography, and with
our new inner awareness move into relationship
with others. We can discover how to live and
share our joy. Join us for an opportunity to nourish your deep aliveness, and to fall in love with
your life.
Soliloquy in Water and Fiber:
Papermaking
Diana Marto
In Eastern spiritual practices, handmade paper
is believed to be imbued with mystical and healing properties. It is in this spirit that you will
create paper art, inspired by tales of the paper
road in Tibet, Japan, Hong Kong, the Yukon,
Zimbabwe, and Big Sur. Learn to make a simple
piece of paper and offer it to the sky. Give free
reign to your artist-soul within a medium that,
as you practice it, guides you to new creation.
Big Sur holds a world of natural fiber just waiting to be harvested, boiled, pounded, and made
into paper art. Consider using paper to make
three-dimensional sculptures to be placed in the
landscape as an installation or altar. Move with
your work as a sacred object in a site-specific
performance improvised or choreographed for
the class. Bring a notebook for your paper samples, and to keep a record of each process you’ve
explored. Also bring natural objects of meaning
to you such as shells, bone, wood, semi-precious
stones, and other treasures such as lace, photographs, and letters to embed in the wet pulp,
as well as your favorite art supplies, and a camera to document your work. All levels of experience welcome. Weather permitting, there will
be an evening sweat lodge for an extra cost of
$20 per participant. During this sacred ceremony, you can write your prayers and invocations
on small pieces of your handmade paper, which
will be offered to the fire. This is an optional
experience in the use of sacred paper.
Moving Meditation Practice:
The Symphony of Relationship
Ellen Watson & Daphne Tse
Relationships are an integral aspect of being
alive, a lifelong adventure that requires deep
introspection into the nature of who we are and
how we live moment to moment. As we come
together in community, Ellen and Daphne will
share their passion for movement, sound, and
song as deep meditation and the ecstatic celebration of life. This work will focus first on our relationship to ourselves, then with loved ones,
community, and the world.
We will begin with a day of silence, and then
flow into the SpiritDance moving meditation
practice (inspired by Gabrielle Roth’s
5Rhythms™), and SoulSong (toning, singing,
nada yoga, and chanting). These practices can
guide us toward uncovering the inner and outer
landscapes of our reality, and deepen our relationship to ourselves, our partners, and our communities.
We are surrounded by the natural world, and
immersed in its rhythms of sound and movement, which create a perfect symphony. Just as
in nature, we each contain unique melodies, and
we all possess the ability to find them, and to
become the dancer of our dance, or the singer of
our own song. Through SpiritDance, SoulSong,
creative writing, poetry, restorative yoga, and
sharing circles we’ll deepen and integrate our
life experience. Come solo, or bring your loved
one(s) for an exploration into the heart of relationship. No dance or musical experience needed. Bring your yoga mat and eye pillow if you
have one.
Recommended media: Tse, Mata (CD); Watson,
SpiritDance (DVD).
Recommended reading: Roth, Sweat Your Prayers;
Steindl-Rast, Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer.
The Language of the Body: Anatomy 1
tion. This introductory level course is designed
for massage therapists, yoga and movement
teachers, and anyone with an interest in communicating more clearly about the body. Please
bring colored pencils.
Required textbook: Kapit and Elson, The
Anatomy Coloring Book.
Weekend of June 3–5
Balance: Your Body’s Re-set Button
Jean Couch
If you have a physical problem that is preventing you from moving on with your life, or if you
find you are always chasing one symptom after
another, then this course is for you. There are a
few things you can do that will re-set your body
in a way that can take away pain and make you
strong again. From studying healthy people all
around the world we know precisely how they
sit, stand, bend, walk, and recline. How they do
these things is very different from what many of
us have been taught. Here is an opportunity to
learn how to align your spine and joints so you
are naturally strong and safe in all you do.
During this workshop, there will be specific
guidelines on how to sit, stand, bend, walk,
recline, how to sit in your car, how to lift and
carry, and essential stretches that accelerate comfort. You will be given continual, individual,
hands-on guidance so you can experience for
yourself specifically what you need to do to
decrease pain and be strong again. There will be
slide shows that instruct and inspire, and easy
practice to do in and out of class, even in the
tubs. The same guidelines that take your pain
away revitalize your structure and can even
improve your appearance. Expect to be surprised, relieved, and to feel like yourself again.
It’s fun, you’ll see.
Jim Gallas
Learn the language of Western professional
health care providers while exploring the miracle of the human form. Material covered
includes the major muscles and bones, skin and
connective tissue, anatomical directions, types
of joints and joint actions, and a brief overview
of the body’s various systems. A wide variety of
teaching techniques will be used, including lecture, movement, palpation, massage, guided
visualization, lots of review, and group interac-
Enjoying Meditation: Returning to Ease
Peter Russell
Discover how something as simple as surrendering all resistance in meditation can open us to
the peace and joy that lie within. For thousands
of years, spiritual traditions have taught meditation as a way to awaken to our true nature. Yet,
many people find meditation tedious and difficult, a never-ending struggle to quiet the mind
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or focus the attention. This has led to the popular misconception that meditation requires great
discipline and years of practice.
Peter Russell, who has been teaching meditation
for forty years, has found that the key is giving
up all trying and effort. The mind in its natural
relaxed state is already at ease. Nothing needs to
be “done” to find inner peace, we simply need to
let go of the various thoughts that keep our
minds busy and tense. The beauty of this
approach is that nothing needs to be changed or
eliminated. We simply surrender to the fullness
of the present moment.
In this workshop, we can:
is an interwoven, mutual promise. You promise
to practice yoga seven minutes each day, naturally, not obsessively. You open yourself to the gifts
that yoga can give back.
The Yoga of Regeneration
This workshop is suitable for everyone: longtime or beginning students of yoga. Please bring
a yoga mat.
Mark Whitwell
Experience a nurturing, regenerative weekend
of yoga in the ancient restorative atmosphere
and healing waters of Esalen. When you make a
promise to practice yoga, yoga will meet you at
every level, offering healing solutions to your
unique needs. During this workshop you will
learn an authentic yoga practice that takes you
into account. It is a real yoga for real people. By
the end, you will have a practical yoga designed
personally for you, with your health, age, and
lifestyle fully considered. The gifts of this yoga
can benefit all aspects of your daily life—health,
intimacy, wellbeing, and joy.
It is not enlightenment we want, but intimacy
with life in every aspect. This intimacy and
unity with life is freely available to everyone,
even amidst our difficulties. A promise to yoga
Recommended reading: Whitwell, Yoga of Heart;
Desikachar, The Heart of Yoga.
The Undervalued Self: Reach the
Unconscious Voice that Holds You Back
Elaine Aron
Are you tired of your moments of low selfesteem? After this weekend, you’ll go home with
new tools to help you feel very good about yourself. These tools can reduce the times when lack
of confidence holds you back, help you feel less
tense at work, help your close relationships stay
loving during conflicts, and you can feel better
without making anyone else feel worse. From
the author of The Highly Sensitive Person comes a
fresh approach to one of our oldest psychological problems: feeling inferior when in fact we
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
• Let our minds fully relax and settle down into
a state of profound ease
• Learn basic principles of letting go
• Find greater contentment in the present
moment
• Use our inner knowing to guide us during
meditation
• Learn how to integrate these approaches in
our lives and so find greater ease in daily
activity
The workshop includes guided meditations,
talks, group discussions, and periods of silence
and inner reflection. It is suitable for both
beginners and experienced meditators.
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Imagine your relationship expressing the true
depths of your love and commitment. If you are
in love, this retreat is an opportunity to rise even
higher in love. If you are in crisis, it is an opportunity for healing on the deepest level. We all
carry some degree of negative programming
from our past, and there are loving and effective
ways to transform this programming into a positive and vibrant celebration of our connection.
The workshop includes:
HANNS BECKER
• Exercises and practices for couples
• Coaching of each couple by the Vissells
• Meditations/visualizations designed to
deepen your love
• The support of other couples
• Time for sharing after each practice
are not inferior at all. We start with the premise
that, like all social animals, we are either ranking ourselves among others to see who is best, or
linking with others in friendship or love. Most
human problems come from ranking too much
or at the wrong time, especially ranking ourselves too low. Switching to linking would help,
but our unconscious fears prevent it. Through
lectures, group work, and time for inner exploration you will be taught to:
• Recognize when you are too focused on who’s
best
• Work with your fear of being ranked
“worthless”
• Avoid the six self-protections against
humiliation that harm relationships
• Understand your undervalued self and how
your past feeds it
• Heal the part of you that has been wounded by
abuses of power
This is a quiet, thoughtful weekend for people
who want to explore in a group environment.
Highly sensitive people are especially welcome.
Recommended reading: Aron, The Undervalued
Self.
brings with it a feeling of inner wholeness.
Thus, healing our outer connection to the environment creates healing within. Furthermore,
when we connect to the natural world, our
actions become more centered and thoughtful.
We truly experience the interconnected web of
life.
Often our busy lives pull us away from this
experience of interconnectedness. Our imbalance can arise from being out of touch with
nature, and also from being out of touch with
the rich inner word of our psyches. Carl Jung
recognized that these seemingly separate inner
and outer worlds are really one. In this workshop, we will reflect on how to live a more balanced life, and explore new ways of living both
sustainably and soulfully. Jungian-inspired practices, such as active imagination, dream work,
and working with film images, will allow us to
explore the unity of both inner and outer
worlds. Nature walks also create opportunities
to experience this reconnection of our two
worlds. We can learn to create a new environment for sustaining our world and souls by
opening ourselves to these unique experiences.
Sustaining Earth, Sustaining Soul
The Shared Heart Retreat:
The Couple’s Journey to Wholeness
Jeffrey Kiehl
Joyce Vissell & Barry Vissell
How can we sustain our world and our souls at
the same time? Living sustainably means living
in a supportive and creative balance with nature.
Psychologically, living in balance with the world
Being with facilitators Joyce and Barry Vissell,
who are so much in love after forty-five years of
being together, can be just as helpful as their
powerfully effective teachings.
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Participants are shown tools for deeper appreciation and communication building, including
healthy communication of feelings, our partner
as a mirror (working with positive as well as
negative projections), understanding and
respecting each other’s differences, conflict resolution, healing past hurts, sexual wellness, inner
child/inner parent, the art of deep apology, and
developing a true inner connection. This workshop is for couples only.
Ram Dass has called Joyce and Barry Vissell
“true bhaktis,” a couple who live the yoga of love
and devotion.
Recommended reading: Vissell and Vissell, Light
in the Mirror and The Shared Heart.
Week of June 5–10
Plein Air Painting in Big Sur
Jennifer McChristian
Join award-winning painter Jennifer
McChristian for a five-day intensive workshop
for all levels of artists who want to learn the
time-honored joy of painting en plein air.
Painting en plein air is a term made popular by
the French Impressionists and translates as
“painting in the open air.” The deep spiritual connection to nature derived from this form of
intense observation has made it a lasting tradition which is especially needed in these modern
times.
The aim is to learn to interpret nature in terms
of paint, using light and color to create form.
Color relationships, design and composition,
simplifying, and the benefits of painting outdoors are discussed, as well as how to design and
build a painting that carries an emotional
impact. Students focus on values, shapes, edges,
and color as they relate to painting.
There are brief demonstrations each day and
one-on-one advice in the field. Exercises include
creating small 6x8” color sketches, where students will paint color block-ins and value studies prior to working on larger canvases. In the
event of inclement weather students must bring
with them several reference photographs of
landscapes.
Integral Farm and Garden Systems:
Urban Permaculture Design, in
collaboration with UC Berkeley
Extension: Sustainable Design Program
Josiah Raison Cain, Benjamin Fahrer
& Kat Steele
This dynamic five-day experience gives you the
opportunity to learn in the Esalen Farm and
Garden and Community. Local food security is a
major issue facing communities worldwide.
There is no greater form of activism than growing one’s own food, no greater sense of connection to the land than sowing, cultivating, and
harvesting from the earth that sustains us. This
is the essence of SLOW food (Sustainable, Local,
Organic and in respect to the Wild). Come into
a deeper relationship with and celebration of the
whole process.
Learning directly with Esalen staff and permaculture design experts, you can experience the
realities of what it takes to make a garden thrive.
Typical days begin with the morning harvest
and hands-on experience with composting, seed
starting, cultivation, irrigation systems, transplanting, companion planting, and biodynamic
farming techniques. Afternoon and evening sessions will look deeply into specific questions
and topics of interest. Designing sustainable
urban food systems and urban permaculture
design will be explored. Urban design includes
food systems that integrate with population centers. Using the principles, ethics, and design
methods of permaculture, we’ll examine the sustainable urban food system, including its inputs
and outputs. This workshop can help deepen
your relationship to the permaculture network
and the international community.
This course was designed in conjunction with
the Professional Program in Sustainable Design
at UC Berkeley Extension. For more information, visit: http://extension.berkeley.edu/subject/
sustainable.html.
Please note: Graduates of the UCBX Sustainable
Design program may be eligible for a permaculture design certificate following the completion
of this course.
More Than a Communication Workshop
Jean Morrison & Martine Amita Algier
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) has been
described as a powerful tool for social change, a
personal practice for clarifying and living one’s
values, a guide for interpersonal communication, an effective process for conflict resolution,
and a language of compassion. Deepak Chopra
has called this process “the missing link.”
In a fun, lively, collaborative, and supportive
environment, we integrate practices that are
changing the way people relate to themselves
and each other. Based on the internationally
acclaimed process of NVC, this workshop gives
tools and inspires hope. Learning NVC helps
liberate us from:
• Judging self and others
• Taking things personally
• Acting from fear, duty, obligation, and guilt
• Suffering in anger and depression
Learning NVC supports us in:
• Expressing ourselves honestly without blame,
shame, or criticism
• Hearing others’ pain without trying to fix
them
• Creating new strategies that meet core needs
• Becoming more effective at everything we do,
including creating peace in the world
NVC was developed by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg
over a period of thirty years. It has been taught
to individuals and organizations in more than
thirty-five countries. Martine Amita Algier, Jean
Morrison, and 200 certified trainers around the
world teach NVC in their communities, schools,
prisons, corporations, social-change organizations, war-torn regions, and health care and government institutions.
Luminous Being: Embodying the
Radiance Sutras
Lorin Roche & Camille Maurine
Immerse yourself in love-drenched meditation
and movement. We will explore the luminous
teachings of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, an
ancient text that describes 112 awareness prac-
tices for touching the sacred in the midst of
daily life. The Radiance Sutras is a musical, sensuous translation of this tantra by Lorin Roche,
who has lived and breathed these yogas for 40
years. The Radiance Sutras evoke a world of
wonder, awe, and delight. The focus of this
workshop is on full-body spirituality—accepting
every breath, sensual experience, and emotion
as a doorway into deep and intimate contact
with the energies of life. The practices include
mudra (energy gestures), pranayama (breath),
mantra (sound), and dhyana (meditation).
Anyone can practice these methods. The emphasis is on naturalness, spontaneity, and being at
home in the universe. You meet yourself wherever you are, whether you are restless, lonely, loving,
tired, excited, nostalgic, or quiet. This workshop
is an opportunity to dive into the Sutras that are
calling you and receive coaching from Lorin and
Camille to make them your own, so that you can
embody, move, and breathe this luscious reality.
All levels of experience are welcome.
Required reading: Roche, The Radiance Sutras.
Recommended reading: Roche, Meditation Made
Easy; Maurine and Roche, Meditation Secrets for
Women.
Holistic Sexuality: A New Integral
Approach
Marina Romero & Ramon Albareda
This workshop is for individuals who wish to
access the full potential of their vital primary
energy, understood here as sexuality, and
explore how this energy can be creatively
expressed and integrated holistically – at the
somatic, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels.
The course is designed to teach you how to connect with this energy not only in your everyday
life, but also as a bridge to the deepest dimension of your reality, as a catalyst for a grounded
spiritual growth. The principles and practices
that shape Holistic Sexuality are inspired by seeing life’s natural processes as organic references
for transformation and healing. The fruit of
decades of research and experience, Holistic
Sexuality is affiliated with neither tantra nor
other methods of working with sexuality.
The leaders will facilitate group process as well
as counsel each participant individually to
design personalized practices. You will learn
how to safely self-regulate your own process
from an awareness of your present capabilities
and necessary boundaries. This workshop will
guide you in:
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others. This is a workshop for those in business,
non-profit leaders, and social entrepreneurs.
Our approach and assumption is that business is
a human endeavor. The function of a business is
to organize people, in order to serve the needs of
others, through developing products or services.
People are spiritual in nature: we have bodies
and minds; we have hearts and aspirations; we
are born and will die. Our core assumption and
exploration is that the more we can include the
whole person in business, the more successful
the business will be, and the more satisfied the
people in that business will be. We will explore
and practice with these and other questions,
including the following:
• Developing a path of self-knowledge,
regeneration, and creative evolution
• Transforming the limiting unconscious
tendencies of your vital primary world
• Working through conflicts that hinder your
sexual self-expression
• Integrating sexual and spiritual energies to
enhance the quality of your life
Please note: Instruction is given in English and
Spanish, with English translation provided.
Mark Whitwell
According to yoga master Krishnamacharya,
yoga was not meant to be a struggle to attain
some future goal, but a direct participation in
the nurturing force of life.
This course is designed to provide advanced
yoga understanding and practice for all levels of
yoga students. The program will be helpful for
yoga students who wish to understand the principles of Krishnamacharya, “the teacher of our
teachers.” Participants will study how to apply
these principles to the yoga they already know
and love in order to make it efficient, powerful,
and safe. Emphasis will be given to developing a
personalized practice, which you can take away
from Esalen and continue to effectively practice
for, in Krishnamacharya’s words, “peace and
power in your daily life.” The course can be
accredited to Yoga Alliance Teacher Training.
Please bring your own yoga mat.
Gestalt Practice and Cortical Field
Reeducation®: Developing Emotional
and Somatic Resources
Patrice Hamilton & Dorothy Charles
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
Advanced Yoga Practice for Perfect
Beginners: The Principles of Practice
because of painful memories, and difficulty in
experiencing feelings directly, we have been
avoiding them.
This is a relational process. Working in an
empathic, supportive group setting creates a
container in which new ways of moving and
being can be expressed and explored. This workshop provides the experience of making contact
with people who are present and accepting,
making it possible to develop a greater capacity
for feelings. We can then learn to use our feelings as guides that help us live more authentically, moving beyond habits of being and relating
that no longer serve us. In addition, changes in
habitual muscular holding patterns result in a
body that is better able to support changes made
on any level, emotional, physical, or psychological.
Recommended reading: Kurtz, Body Centered
Psychotherapy; Perls, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim;
Feldenkrais, The Potent Self.
Increasing awareness of our somatic sense of self
provides new options for developing more effective psychological and physical patterns. This
experiential workshop blends the slow, developmental movement of Cortical Field Reeducation®
with individual and group Gestalt work to
address how habitual, unconscious beliefs and
behaviors formed early in life lead to habitual
ways of responding that limit life experience.
Through mindfulness, explorations of forgotten
movement patterns, and Gestalt Awareness
Practice, we contact the here-and-now, where
change and growth are possible. As we become
more present in our bodies, we may discover an
inability to identify what we are feeling, or that,
This workshop will include meditation, mindfulness practices, and practical tools for developing the art of warm-hearted, skillful leadership.
We will explore spiritual teachings on focus and
integrity as well as best practices from leadership models for influencing and empowering
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Spirituality in Business: Growing Your
Organization, Growing Yourself
Cheri Huber & Marc Lesser
• How can we penetrate the conventional
contradiction of business success and
effectiveness with spiritual development and
finding real freedom?
• How can we bring our full selves to our work,
and utilize work as a place for personal,
emotional, and spiritual growth?
• In what ways can spirituality play a role in
increasing organizational effectiveness—strong
leadership, collaboration, flexibility,
responsiveness, and creativity
• What role does spirit have in transforming the
way we view our work and the impact that
business has in our lives, and in transforming
our world?
Daring to Trust: Opening Ourselves to
Real Love and Intimacy
David Richo
Our capacity for trust developed during childhood so we had no control over its installation.
As adults we may sometimes find it difficult to
trust others or even ourselves. Trust, in an intimate relationship, is not only about fidelity. It
also includes a willingness to share our deepest
needs, feelings, and concerns. To be trustworthy
as a partner is to receive this sharing without
judgment. This is mindfulness in action. We also
receive with openness and caring. This is a form
of loving-kindness. Some people fear facing the
needs, feelings, and concerns of others. Both
may have trust issues that will require work
before a relationship can grow psychologically
or spiritually. Some people fear being vulnerable
and open. Though we cannot always trust others, we can choose to act with trustworthiness
toward others no matter how they treat us. As
we practice unconditional trustworthiness we
notice a wonderful result: We become less disappointed when others fail us. Our focus has shifted from ourselves as victims of others’ betrayals
to our own commitment to trustworthiness. We
may still see that some people are not trustworthy and we feel sadness and compassion. But as
long as we do not follow suit, we are not as hurt
as we once were. This weekend focuses not only
on trust and trustworthiness in relationships
but also in ourselves, and in the givens of life—
what happens beyond our control, a power
greater than our ego.
Recommended reading: Richo, Daring to Trust:
Opening Ourselves to Real Love and Intimacy.
Living the Spirit of Love: Awareness
Practice for Conscious Living
Anne Watts
We go to seminars and workshops. We meditate,
pray, and follow a spiritual path. Yet we still find
that our daily behavior doesn’t match our own
moral compass. Soon after the workshop or our
meditation, we feel ourselves succumbing to the
constant pressures of job, money management,
family, our daily lives…We seem to live under
the tyranny of our to-do lists. Without realizing
it we find ourselves yelling at other drivers,
snarling at our computers, snapping at our loved
ones, or simply having negative thoughts.
This weekend is an opportunity to take stock of
the gap between who we say we want to be and
our daily behavior. Through visualization and
connecting with others, we will explore how we
feel when we live and move in a state of awareness and love. We will interact with ourselves
and each other using compassion, honesty,
humor, trust, and gratitude. We will practice
using our conscious awareness to bring us
deeply into our hearts, feeling a profound sense
of love for ourselves and others. We will leave
the workshop with the experience and tools to
infuse our daily lives with this practice.
Discover that by choosing to “be love,” we can
experience peace and joy in all we do.
For more information about Anne and her
work, visit www.annewatts.com.
Sweet Mischief: A Lighthearted Path
for Self-Realization and Restoration
David Schiffman
Step right up, step right in, come and enjoy
the trouble you’re in.
—Coyote Old Man
The radiance of a light heart changes for the better everything it reveals. It bathes us in an
atmosphere of playfulness, hope, and goodwill.
It is born of innate wisdom and is a blessing for
all who share it. If you feel that living a passionate, lighthearted, authentic life is a necessity, not
a luxury, if presence to deeper, wiser, more naturally uninhibited spirits helps you balance out
the needs and demands of others with your
own, if you feel being free and whole in your
own skin is the proper foundation for a real life
lived—then you’re ready for the lighthearted
path of sweet mischief.
Come join David Schiffman and friends in a
weekend of high spirits, joyful antics, and deep
contemplation amidst all things considered.
“Our aim together,” writes David, “is to express
our deepest thoughts and feelings in a dreamtime celebration of lighthearted intention. We
will call on the uplifting spirit medicine of ceremony, touch, dance, music, and song, along with
the powers of spirit-family and personal daring
and sharing. Our mission: to reconnect with
what is free, natural, and alive inside us… A joyful tune-up… A time designed to leave you feeling more nimble, poised, and able to face the
challenge of making the life you hope for.”
Neuroscience of Mind, Brain and
Consciousness
David Presti
The human brain is the most complex structure
in the known universe and each of us has one of
these super-complex organs just behind our eyes.
Developments in the scientific understanding of
the brain are taking place at a rapid pace and
much new information has accumulated about
the molecular and cellular basis of brain structure
and function, the relationships between brain
chemistry and behavior, and the factors involved
in the growth and repair of the nervous system.
Yet many mysteries remain, including deep
understanding of the brain processes involved in
memory, perception, mental illness, and arguably
the greatest unanswered question in all of science, the physical basis of consciousness and
mind. Participants have the opportunity to develop a comprehensive understanding of the biology of the brain and the neuroscience of consciousness, the effects of drugs on the brain and
mind, and the emerging synthesis between neuroscience and the contemplative-meditative disciplines. The workshop is of interest and value to
anyone—including health professionals from all
clinical areas—who wishes to expand their knowledge about the mind-body connection.
Spiritual Memoir: Where Your Outer
Life Meets Your Inner World
Roger Housden
And the golden bees / were making white combs /
and sweet honey / from all my old failures.
—Antonio Machado
Spiritual memoir uses the raw material of the
events of your life to reveal the deeper intelligence of your own life’s journey. In this workshop, we weave into words as truthfully and tenderly as possible the ongoing thread of our lives
that is to be found in times of both difficulty
and joy—the sweet honey made from all our old
failures.
This workshop provides a relaxed and nonjudgmental space in which to share your work
and to receive supportive feedback. Above all
you are encouraged to reach down into one or
more events in your life and feel, intuit, and
express the deeper layers of wisdom and healing that may lie within them. You are welcome
to bring work you want feedback on, and
whether or not you have prior material, come
ready to develop some during the workshop.
As important as content is style, language,
metaphor, and imagery, and this workshop
sharpens all of these elements. Spiritual memoir can fit easily into poetry, nonfiction, fiction, or journal writing, and the workshop is
suitable for either beginner or experienced
writers.
Recommended reading: Housden, Ten Poems to
Change Your Life Again and Again and Sacred
Journeys in a Modern World.
Weekend Massage Intensive
Oliver Bailey & Silvia Guersenzvaig
This weekend workshop will introduce the
core concepts of Esalen® Massage. Through
brief lectures and demonstrations, and with
plenty of personal supervision of hands-on
work, the workshop will present essential
tools and information that can easily be
applied. The principle elements of bodywork,
including breath awareness, grounding, movement, and quality of touch will also be introduced and practiced, creating a firm foundation for learning massage. Participants will
also have time to enjoy the healing waters of
the natural hot springs and the magical beauty
of the Esalen grounds.
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Esalen’s 7th Annual Yoga Festival
Th e Wa y o f L o v e : Yo g a a n d G r a t i t u d e
Week of June 12–17
Saul David Raye, Janet Stone, Sianna
Sherman, and Bill Mahoney
my beloved grows
right out of my own heart
how much more union can there be?
—Rumi
Welcome to the seventh annual Esalen Yoga
Festival. During this week, immersed in the
natural splendor of Esalen, we will dive into
the deep pool of devotion through practicing
yoga asana, pranayama, kirtan, meditation,
dance, and satsang. The festival begins on
Sunday evening with an opening gathering for
everyone to come together in community and
set our collective intention for the week. Each
morning is open to rest, take a walking meditation around the grounds, or spend time in the
Esalen baths. After breakfast, there will be
offerings of asana classes from Saul David Raye,
Sianna Sherman, and Janet Stone, including
one “workshop” each day, which will be a small
group focused on one element of the practice.
Live music will be offered each day in the
Leonard Pavilion—each teacher will have an
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
All roads eventually lead to the heart. The heart
is the place in our being where we truly integrate and balance all areas of our life and
nature. All paths of yoga, healing, and spirituality recognize the heart as the place that holds
our deepest longing and fulfillment. But the
heart remains a mystery, because we cannot
enter it in our usual way, from the mind. We
must enter through the doorway of the heart,
which is feeling. The practice of bhakti (devotion) invites us to go beyond the intellectual
ideas or concepts, to go beyond what normally
passes for love...to dive in and experience the
infinite depth and overflowing energy of our
own hearts. When we live in and from the
heart, we live as a sacred lover with the whole
cosmos and stay connected to the very pulse of
life itself—love.
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opportunity to lead morning sessions there at
least once.
After a nourishing lunch, we’ll be free to
receive massages, soak in the baths overlooking
the Pacific, rest, recharge, and connect with
other yogis. Renowned tantric scholar Bill
Mahoney will offer late afternoon meditation
and satsang gatherings to discuss the Bhakti
Narda Sutras, which details the process of bhakti. Other afternoon sessions will include partner Thai yoga, restorative practice, and a chanting circle. Evenings will include a kirtan mala,
expanded time with Bill, and the final evening
will be a celebration and a reflection on our
week spent together.
This retreat will be full and spirited—expect to
be in full classes with yoga mats close together.
There will be some props on hand but please
bring your own yoga mat. You will also need a
towel, zafu or cushion for meditation, block,
strap, and two blankets for restorative yoga.
Leaders
Davidson College in North Carolina since
1982. He teaches courses on Hinduism,
Buddhism, Islam, and topics in the comparative study of religion, and has special research
interest in the contemplative dimensions of
religions originating in India. A renowned
Tantric scholar, he is currently translating the
Bhakti Narda Sutras and his publications
include The Artful Universe: An Introduction to
the Vedic Religious Imagination and, as coauthor,
Meditation Revolution: A History and Theology of
the Siddha Yoga Lineage. He has won numerous
awards for teaching in a style that can be
described as exciting as well as accessible to the
modern-day yogi.
Saul David Raye is an internationally
acclaimed teacher, healer, and mystic known
for his empowering and transformational
approach to yoga, healing, and spirituality.
Saul’s teaching draws on the depth of the yoga
tradition and all forms of universal light, love,
and wisdom. Since his teenage years he has
traveled to Asia, India, and throughout the US
studying yoga, Thai massage, pranic healing,
and meditation with masters of various spiritual and healing traditions. Through the grace of
his teachers and guides he is able to bring alive
the essence of ancient wisdom teachings for
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
William K. Mahony has been a professor at
modern seekers, in a way that allows students
to connect deeply with their own authentic
power and spirit. SaulDavidRaye.com.
Janet Stone traveled to India in 1996, to the
birthplace of her grandfather, where she met a
powerful yogi and became dedicated to a conscious evolution through yoga. As one of San
Francisco’s premiere yoga instructors, Janet
blends a wealth of knowledge and yoga experience to create a unique, vigorous-yet-sumptuous approach to Vinyasa yoga that effortlessly
melds awareness with movement and breath.
She currently follows the teachings of her two
young daughters, India and Lilianna, who shed
the light on all things profound and wondrous.
www.janetstoneyoga.com.
Sianna Sherman is an internationally recog-
nized Anusara yoga teacher who delights in
storytelling, poetry, spontaneous dance, and
long walks in nature. She has a special appreciation for the mythological roots of yoga and
often teaches workshops called Mythic Yoga
Flow which are infused with Anusara yoga, stories, and music. She began her studies of yoga
in 1989, lived in India where she met and studied with Gurumayi Chidvilasanda and subsequently had the great blessing of meeting her
primary mentor John Friend in 1995. She studies closely with renowned Tantric scholars
Douglas Brooks and Paul Muller Ortega.
www.opentograce.com.
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DANIEL BIANCHETTA
An Introduction to Living Nutrition
through a Raw Foods Diet
Liam McDermott
This is an introductory course in preparing live
raw foods. The raw, or living food, diet is based
on eating organic, uncooked plant-based foods,
which have a high content of essential livingfood nutrients: enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and
probiotic cultures. Food-based enzymes, which
exist in all living foods, help digest and assimilate the food we eat without taxing the pancreas
to manufacture these necessary enzymes from
our own stores of minerals and amino acids.
Whole food vitamins and minerals have all the
constituent parts needed in order for us to
receive the benefits of these nutrients. For
example, fermented and cultured foods offer a
wealth of probiotic strains to keep the microfauna of our digestive tract healthy. When we cook
food above 108°F, the heat begins to destroy
many of these essential nutrients. As the cooking temperature rises, more nutrients are
destroyed.
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The benefits of a living raw-food diet are
increased vitality, improved digestion, weight
loss, reduced risk of heart disease, and improved
appearance of the skin. This course will introduce various methods to prepare live foods,
including sprouting seeds, nuts, grains, and
beans; growing and juicing wheatgrass; making
sauerkraut and other fermented foods; making
nut milks; using a dehydrator; and the art of
blending, juicing, and chopping to prepare raw
meals with creativity and taste. This is a handson workshop in which participants will be eating the meals they prepare for themselves.
($60 special foods fee paid directly to the leader)
Improv: Expanding Yourself with
Laughter
Dixie Cox & Clifford Henderson
Just as our muscles can tighten with stress and
age, so can our notions about ourselves. Indeed,
if these core beliefs aren’t stretched and made
flexible, we run the risk of growing into the
stereotypical narrow-minded “adult,” comfortable with routines and unwilling to try new
things. One antidote to this curmudgeonly
affliction is the improvisational workout.
Children stretch their sense of self through the
powerful medium of play. Adults often don’t
because they find it too scary or foolish. This
unwillingness prevents them from experiencing
that potent tool we call play, which includes the
permission to try new ways of being, without
the serious consequences of real life.
Clifford Henderson and Dixie Cox guide participants through simple improv exercises aimed at
personal expansion. Using the tenets of improv,
such as trust and spontaneity, participants are
encouraged to say “yes” to situations offered to
them by the group. The group also explores one
of the most compelling tools in improv: status,
the human pecking order. Participants familiarize themselves with the subtle clues they send
and receive to define their status, and have a
chance to try out new body language and status
choices. Rejuvenate your spirit through experiential play and laughter. For more information,
visit www.funinstitute.com.
Women in Transition:
Climbing into Your Authentic Self
Jnana Gowan & Suze Allen
Your house is on fire. Your boat is sinking. What
do you want to take with you? What are you
happy to watch sink or go up in flames? Gain a
deeper understanding of your life in transition
and find out what’s standing in the way of your
being your most authentic self.
Embrace the dark so you can move into the
light. Through creative writing exercises,
restorative and rigorous Hatha yoga, deep relaxation, and guided meditation, you can wake up
into present time. In this clear space you can
choose what you desire rather than what you
think you’re supposed to do or what others want
from you. Ah, freedom! Come spend the weekend in the beauty of Big Sur, interweaving
nature, ritual, and a healthy dose of humor into
the new fabric of who you are. The yoga is for all
levels. Please bring a yoga mat.
A Celebration of Family
Sunnie Kaufmann-Paulman
What does family mean to you? Spend this
weekend exploring the language of love in your
family. Experience the expression of love
through music, movement, and silence. Create a
family portrait using the tools of your imagination. Share your family history in a special story
circle. Together, begin to write a family book
that will grow with you as your family continues
to grow. This workshop is open to parents, children, and any other family members who want
to celebrate the love that makes a family. We will
be celebrating fathers on this Father’s Day weekend as well; all forms of “Dad” are welcome!
Building Collaborative Relationships
through Five Essential Skills
Jim Tamm
Several follow-up research studies documented
the dramatic long-term results. Conflict was
reduced by 85%, trust increased by 70%, defensiveness reduced by 50%, and participants were
45% more effective at getting their interests met
in conflict.
The course offers a combination of two powerful approaches to transforming conflict into collaboration. The first is interest-based non-adversarial negotiations, well documented for dramatically reducing conflict in business, government,
and interpersonal relationships. The second is a
focus on behaviors and feelings that can block
resolution of conflicted situations. Participants
will learn how their often unconscious emotional needs in the areas of inclusion, control, and
openness impact their effectiveness when building relationships and dealing with conflict.
This is skill-building to develop relationships for
long-term mutual success. The material will be
of immediate use to individuals as well as people
in interpersonal and work relationships such as
couples, families, team leaders and members,
and employers and employees.
Approved by the California State Board of
Accountancy for 12 hours of CE credit.
Spinal Awareness (with Humor):
The Essence of Feldenkrais® and
Energy Work
movements, originating from the monasteries of
China and Tibet, further increase healing possibilities. Safe and noninvasive hands-on lessons
will be presented that can greatly speed up
improvements.
This workshop will evolve with humor and
playfulness. Fun partner lessons will help bring
about not only freedom in the body but the
This is a program designed for both the beginner and the professional.
Fathers and Sons: Celebrating Father’s
Day in the Tradition of the Old Ways
Steven Harper, Kenneth Harper, Kai Harper
& Kes Harper
It is a wise child that knows his own father.
—Homer
It is a wise father that knows his own child.
—William Shakespeare
Over the ages, fathers and sons have journeyed
together into the wilds of nature, traveling light,
living simply, and stepping together on the path
of what is known and what is unknown as students and teachers for one another. This weekend is a time for fathers and sons to come
together as individuals, family, and community
to explore the natural wild areas of Big Sur and
the relationship of father and son in a community of men.
Patrick Douce
The movements of Spinal Awareness are quite
different from normal exercises. They emphasize learning how to move in ways that stimulate your awareness of your body. They involve
learning to use the floor to organize and integrate your own spinal column. Standing lessons
lead to a new awareness of ways to move with
better balance and fluidity. Special emphasis
will be placed on any difficulties participants
may have, such as lower back pain, hip trouble,
tension in the neck and shoulders, and knee
injuries.
This is a “how to” course for people who want to
be more effective at creating climates of trust,
building relationships, and dealing with conflict—at work, at home, or within oneself. Many
personal and business relationships become
adversarial simply through a lack of relationshipbuilding skills. This workshop provides practical
experience with five skills that are essential for
building successful collaborative relationships.
This work will focus on how we can re-learn
how to overcome our limitations in movement
and functioning. Special emphasis will be
placed on Skeletal Awareness. Students will be
given a new understanding of how tension and
injury are often involved with the disorganization in the skeletal-muscular parts of our bodies.
The course has its roots in a Hewlett Foundation/
State of California pilot project designed to
teach collaborative skills in adversarial settings.
Lessons inspired by Indonesian Silat will be
used to stimulate the energy body, effecting
internal health and increasing energy. These
“Our time together is simple,” says Steven.
“Participants will be introduced to basic contemplative and awareness practices from various
wisdom traditions. Our time outdoors during
the weekend will be spent on day hikes (four to
six miles in length) into the rugged beauty of
Big Sur. Much of our time will be in silence,
quiet dialog, and reflective exercises that invite
participants to pay attention to that which has
heart and meaning. During indoor sessions we
will share experience, stories of the path, and
poems of inspiration…with a touch of creative
humor to add balance.”
Longtime Esalen leader, Steven Harper, his
father Kenneth, and two sons, Kai and Kes, will
lead the weekend. This multi-generational
father and son team along with the group will
weave together an eclectic mix that draws from
collective life experience and training. All levels
of experience are welcome, however the group is
limited to participants fourteen years and older.
More information will be sent upon registration.
($10 park-entrance fees paid directly to the leaders)
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Massage Retreat for Couples
Laurie Lioness Parizek & Oliver Bailey
This workshop is designed for loving partners
who wish to bring the nurturing practice of
massage into their daily lives and spend a special
weekend together cradled in the beauty and
intensity of the Big Sur coast. It is also for couples who want to deepen already existing skills
and for those wanting to create more time in
their lives for healing and intimacy.
This weekend intensive will focus on teaching
couples to give and receive a pleasurable fullbody massage. It will also address issues such as
keeping love, touch, and a healing interchange
alive at home during busy or stressful times,
touching with care and sensitivity, asking for
what you need, and reciprocity so that both partners feel nurtured and loved. Sessions will
include both demonstrations and hands-on
instruction with plenty of practice time.
Although our emphasis will be on loving touch
and communication between couples, the massage techniques presented are useful for relaxation, pain, and stress, and can often increase
vital energy. The techniques may also be used
with sensitivity with children as well as friends
and family, providing a useful tool for health
and wellbeing.
pants explore Chinese medical theory, journey
into the philosophies of the Taoists, Buddhists,
martial artists, and ancient alchemists, and make
enlightening comparisons with Western physiology and quantum physics. Simple methods of
transmitting qi to others will be introduced as
well.
Reflecting from his thirty years in the practice
of Chinese medicine and his numerous trips to
the hospitals and sacred sites of Asia, Roger
Jahnke notes: “For those who seek healing this
is an opportunity for deep immersion in qigong.
For those who seek personal maximization and
stress relief, this is an exploration of one of the
most eloquent empowerment systems ever
developed. For those who seek the light of spirituality, qigong is a clear path to the revelation of
inner radiance. For all, we will be intently creating and bathing in a field of pure and radiant qi.”
For more information, visit www.FeeltheQi.com.
Recommended reading: Jahnke, The Healer
Within and The Healing Promise of Qi.
Soul Motion™: Sanctuary
Vinn Martí
sanc•tu•ary n, 1. A sacred place, such as a church,
temple, or mosque. 2. A place of refuge or asylum.
Qigong Empowerment: The Healing
Promise for Qi Health Maximization,
Healing and Spiritual Alchemy
Roger Jahnke
Chinese yoga, known as qigong (chi kung), is
emerging as the self-healing tool of choice in
many people’s lives and in hospitals, spas, retreat
centers, corporations, and even the military.
This retreat is designed for those who seek healing, empowerment, maximum personal performance, inner peace, and the experience of oneness. The program begins with the simplest levels of self-healing, known as dao yin, including
gentle tai chi-like movements, self-massage,
breath practice, and meditative mindfulness.
Then, drawing on Roger Jahnke’s widely
acclaimed book, The Healing Promise of Qi, participants will explore the insights of the ancient qi
masters, discover the original meaning of tai chi,
and learn the potent Nine Phases Method of qi
cultivation and mastery. Throughout, partici-
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Vinn Martí, designer of Soul Motion, asks,
“What is it like to move in a fresh, authentic
manner? Is it possible to hang in the place within that allows for unbridled expressive contact
with self, other, and divine?” This week in the
natural sanctuary of Esalen will open doors that
enter new rooms of creation, expression, and
union with others.
“Soul Motion,” writes Vinn, “is a movement ministry, a dance practice, and a philosophy of living
that supports our unconditional acceptance of
‘what is’ and our fearless exploration outside the
box of the familiar, sleep-inducing trance we
sometimes find ourselves dancing to. We use the
dance as metaphor for living a creative, expressive, and unified life of integrity, immensity, and
intensity. Our hearts are ablaze with love of the
divine and divine love toward all beings, and
this becomes the beat, and the steps, and the
music, to which we dance the everyday dance.
“During this time together we nudge the spirit
of innovative action and creativity to awaken
and hold a high watch of unconditional acceptance as we stumble our way toward self-expression, self-acceptance, and self-recognition: we
are spirit dancing this human experience.
Through guided imagery and relaxed induction
we track conditions and attitudes which no
longer serve our ability to unwind in the stream
of creative expression, and we open ourselves to
the next movement moment with radical awe
and wonder.“
The Spiritwalker Teachings:
Visionseeker Level 1
Hank Wesselman & Jill Kuykendall
The rediscovery of shamanism has emerged as a
major thrust in the spiritual reawakening of the
Western world. The techniques of traditional
shamans provide an extraordinary method for
accessing hidden dimensions of reality and connecting with inner sources of power and wisdom.
Hank Wesselman writes: “We will rediscover
our indigenous heart through the classic
shamanic journey, reestablishing connections
with our spirit helpers, teachers, and ancestors,
as we engage in visionary fieldwork and examine the nature of health, illness, and healing
from the perspective of spirit medicine.” The
workshop offers a clear introduction for those
new to the shaman’s path, and, for the more
experienced, provides unique material on the
soul cluster from the Hawaiian kahuna perspective.
Wesselman has worked for more than thirty
years with scientists investigating the mystery
of human origins in East Africa and has spent
much of his life with indigenous people. In the
1970s, doing fieldwork in Ethiopia, he began to
have spontaneous visionary experiences strikingly like those of traditional shamans. His wife
Jill Kuykendall is a physical therapist and
transpersonal medical practitioner, specializing
in soul retrieval.
Bring drums and rattles, a notebook, sketchpad,
a small set of oil or chalk pastels, a bandanna or
eyeshade, and a light blanket. Please refrain
from alcohol during the workshop.
Recommended reading: Wesselman &
Kuykendall, Spirit Medicine; Wesselman, The
Journey to the Sacred Garden and The Spiritwalker
Trilogy.
Choosing Aliveness and Intimacy
Mary Goldenson
We have all experienced moments of feeling
totally alive, yet much of our life is spent in a
half-asleep, half-committed state of being. While
there are many life-situations beyond our con-
you put it on. Cast and remold your mask, ornament it with metallic patinas, rice paper, fibers,
and wires and extensions inspired by the natural beauty of the area. Your headdress will also
come alive through theatrical and poetic
imagery in movement. You will work with techniques Sha Sha Higby uses in her costume
designs and in formulating her performances.
Near the end of the workshop the group will
create an informal performance of their masks.
Sha Sha will also perform on Wednesday
evening for the Esalen community.
Cast a mask from a selection of Sha Sha’s rubber
molds, and then sculpt your mask out of clay.
You will also have the option of casting yourself
a negative out of rubber for your own customized mold. You will then work with silk
papers that we dye and collage into the surface
of the mask and an encircling headdress or collar. Bring your own memorabilia to incorporate
into your mask. Please wear loose and dark
clothing, bring a journal or colored construction
paper, pastels, pliers, scissors, cardboard, masking tape, and any ornamental yarns, trims, beads,
fabric scraps, sticks, or other bits of interesting
forms you find. Sha Sha will bring all sculptural
and casting materials, crinoline, foils for decorating, dyes, patinas, silk roving, and organic
materials.
HANNS BECKER
Crafting Careers that Truly Fit:
How to Work From Within
Susan Bernstein
trol, we choose how we respond to these events.
The choice to be passionately alive is an act of
courage. To choose life is to:
choices of how we deaden ourselves and to create the possibility for new aliveness and passionate involvement.
• Open ourselves to all of life—suffering, joy,
success, failure, love, and grief
• Fully acknowledge the truth of who we are
• Commit to living our deepest values and
dreams
• Define what we must change in our
relationships
• Learn new ways to heal, forgive, and
communicate
Come alone or with a partner. A safe, supportive
atmosphere will be provided, using communication skills, movement, Gestalt, and Reichian work.
The challenge is to honestly address the ways in
which we have compromised, given up, or lied
to ourselves and others. This workshop is
designed to bring to awareness our unconscious
The Moving Archetypal Image
This workshop may have up to 34 participants.
Sha Sha Higby
Create your own iconic headdress, which will
come alive as an archetypal moving image when
More than 50% of Americans are dissatisfied
with their jobs. Often, we stumble or fall into
careers that don’t fit, and then we feel stuck.
When we try to make a change we’re guided to
analytical approaches-including career tests and
assessments-to try to figure out a new professional direction. Yet such structures, often lauded in the business world, seldom help us get in
touch with what deeply energizes and moves us.
Our conditioning can make us feel like failures
if we don’t get to a speedy resolution. We rationalize away our true desires and continue to
make life-limiting compromises.
You can gain more clarity about your future life
and livelihood by awakening a form of intelligence we generally overlook: embodied intelligence. Our bodies know how to navigate chaos
and uncertainty although most of us have forgotten the innate wisdom that has been with us
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are unconsciously maintained. Thomas Hanna
named this tendency sensory-motor amnesia
(SMA). Hanna Somatics enables us to use our
brains to overcome SMA and the negative
effects of stress, trauma, and aging. It enables us
to hear more clearly the wisdom of our bodies.
Hanna Somatics also enhances performance and
wellbeing.
Through guided somatic exercises, dyad work,
and hands-on demonstrations, this workshop
explores the neuromuscular responses to emotional states and the wisdom and joy that come
from the body’s renewed awareness and freedom. The workshop presents:
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
• How to assess basic postural reflex patterns
that are habituated
• How emotions create muscular contraction
patterns
• How muscle contraction patterns affect your
somatic disclosures (somatic communications
to others) and somatic perception of
experiences
• How to use the daily maintenance exercise
series and other somatic exercises to maintain
comfort, ease of movement, and receive
wisdom from your somatic self
since birth. When we tap into this inner guidance, we know our next steps.
Through movement, writing, and discussion, we
will creatively listen to and learn to trust our
impulses and instincts as we allow our true life
energy to direct us. Both right and left brain can
feel satisfied as we create compelling new
visions of what work can be for each of us.
Please bring a notebook and a pen.
Realization Process: Attuning to the
Essence of Being
Judith Blackstone
Spiritual traditions refer to an essential dimension of existence. They call it fundamental consciousness, True Self, non-duality, and many
other names. This dimension is not an abstract
concept. It is the core of our own true nature
and is accessible to everyone. Fundamental consciousness is experienced as clear, luminous
space pervading our body and our environment,
transcending the duality of self and object. It is
deeper than the physical and energetic levels of
our being and beyond our psychological defenses, projections, images, and archetypes.
Realization Process is a gentle, precise method
of attuning to fundamental consciousness. This
workshop offers ways to integrate fundamental
consciousness with the body and breath/energy
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system, experience oneness with nature and
people (while remaining grounded in your
body), and see, hear, and touch on a subtler level.
Realization Process attunement exercises are
combined with sitting and movement meditations, and sound and breath work. Discussions
include the ways fundamental consciousness
can facilitate psychological and physical healing.
Please come prepared for deep, concentrated
work.
Recommended reading: Blackstone, The
Empathic Ground, The Enlightenment Process, and
Living Intimately.
This workshop is designed for individuals seeking personal growth as well as for professionals
seeking to enhance the somatic dimension of
their work.
Recommended reading: Hanna, Somatics, The
Body of Life; Criswell Hanna, Biofeedback and
Somatics.
The Song of the Drum,
The Spirit of Dance
Gordy Ryan & Zoë Ryan
Hanna Somatics: Freeing the Wisdom
of Your Somatic Self
Eleanor Criswell Hanna
Hanna Somatics is a mind-body technique developed by Thomas Hanna that enables us to move
toward greater mind-body integration, ease of
movement, and freedom. This workshop introduces the somatic self, somatic theory, and exercises for assessing and somatically transforming
ourselves. As we transform, we move toward
freeing the wisdom of our somatic selves.
Over the course of our lives, chronic muscle
contraction patterns created by past experiences
“We will invite the muse of sweet inspiration
into our lives as we open our ears, hearts, and
vital energy in a soulful celebration of spirit,” the
leaders write. “The creative energy of expression
is a sacred jewel of human experience that
resides in all of us in the deep well of our true
self. Our goal is to release the natural flow of this
pure energy as we enter the living, breathing
music and dance of West African and Sufi traditions. We will refine the skills of our craft by
honoring our roots—learning the wisdom of
those who have travelled the path before us.
Then, when we develop the ability to let go and
be present and spontaneous in the moment,
we’ll find the equilibrium of technique and
inspiration that allows real creativity to arise in
us.
“We will create our rhythm orchestra with hand
drums, bass drums, shekeres, bells, and voices,
build swinging musical arrangements, and
explore the beauty of the dance. Everyone is
welcome to join this experience. Be ready to
relax, release, and open your creative expression
in an atmosphere of compassion and interaction
among friends on the path of self-discovery.
Bring your instruments or contact the leaders if
you need them (lightintheforest@verizon.net). Zoë
will bring extra shekeres and we will have
ashiko drums and jun-juns for the orchestra.
What Now? How to Survive Change
You Didn’t Ask For
MJ Ryan
When it comes to change, people only like
those they make themselves.
—French proverb
“You were going along in your life, following the
rules, expecting certain outcomes. Then all of a
sudden, a painful curveball comes in out of
nowhere and knocks you off course,” MJ Ryan
writes. “A relationship ends, a business fails, an
accident happens. When such events occur, we
feel a variety of painful emotions: shock, anger,
sadness, worry, shame. We experience a loss—of
identity, health, love, a home, safety, or a dream.
Unexpectedly, we are forced on a journey not of
our choosing, one with a host of challenging
questions: How do we make it through the first
difficult weeks and months? How do we deal
with the financial, emotional, circumstantial,
and other consequences? Where do we find the
strength to get up and try again? And how, eventually, do we find renewed fulfillment, success,
and happiness?
Join change expert MJ Ryan in this experiential
workshop to explore this issue through lecture,
journaling, one-on-one, and small group and
whole group experiences. By the end of the
weekend, you’ll have explored the best that psychology, brain science, and the wisdom traditions have to offer about not just surviving, but
thriving through the changes you didn’t ask for.
Recommended reading: Ryan, AdaptAbility: How
to Survive Change You Didn’t Ask For.
Getting Unblocked
Ann Weiser Cornell
Do you sabotage yourself? Is there something
you really need to get done but you just don’t do
it? Are there parts of your life that stay stuck no
matter how hard you try? Do you have to force
yourself to do what you need to do–and even
that doesn’t work?
Inspired by what she learned while releasing her
own writer’s block, Ann Weiser Cornell created
a step-by-step program to help you get
unblocked and find your forward-flowing
action. It’s based on Inner Relationship
Focusing, a body-based method for listening
deeply to yourself.
Learn how to create a climate of acceptance and
welcome within, so that you can hear your
blocking and pushing parts without getting
caught up in the struggle. Discover the myths
and patterns of action blocks and why the harder you try, the less you get done.
In a safe and supportive atmosphere that
respects your inner sense of rightness, you start
with a blocked life issue of your choice and follow it through a series of exercises to release
what’s been holding the block in place. You can
take home skills to use over and over whenever
life gets stuck. Helping professionals can learn
powerful tools for working with clients.
Releasing the Wildness Inside Us:
Your Bold, Brilliant, Creative Self
Sharon Virtue
Are you interested in art workshops but have
never been into Esalen’s Art Barn? If you have
never had the nerve to explore your creative
potential or if you are already an artist and want
a fresh approach to working more freely and
intuitively, this is the workshop for you. You are
invited to join a group of kindred spirits on a
journey of fearless discovery. Everyone is welcome. The only prerequisites are your life experience and a willingness to play.
As we immerse ourselves in this time together,
you can release your inner wild child. Emphasis
is on process rather than a finished product. We
will play the game of chance to spark inspiration and imagination. Playing a series of creative
games enables us to let go of attachment to the
outcome. Use paints, crayons, collage, and fabric
to create your work of art. We can work on
paper, cardboard, canvas, or any other found
object you choose to use. Inspiration can come
from several sources and, of course, the incredible surroundings. This will become a ritual of
manifestation and a path to your own inner wisdoms. Don’t limit yourself, this workshop touches upon a wide variety of disciplines, and will be
a surprising and informative experience on
many levels for all.
Week of June 26–July 1
Zen and the Art of Photography
Douglas Beasley
Revitalize your creative process by exploring
your relationship to your subject, your camera,
and yourself. Through photo exercises and
assignments, you can deepen your visual awareness while clarifying your approach, making
images that are both more personal and more
meaningful.
Cultivate simplicity while taking photographs,
in support of the notion that a photograph is
not taken but made. You can learn to become a
better photographer by becoming more in
touch with your inner self and then use that
awareness to deepen your connection with your
chosen subject, whether person, place, or thing.
Attention is paid to lighting, composition,
depth-of-field, and exposure issues, but it is not
the technical concerns that drive our image
making. Practical advice will be given, but more
importantly we will use this information to
make more emotionally expressive images.
Mornings will be spent in class, and in the early
afternoon Doug will work with participants on
assignments or critiques. There will be time in
the afternoons and after the evening sessions for
soaking and enjoying the natural beauty of
Esalen.
While participants must have a working knowledge of their camera, the creative process of
image making is emphasized over the mechanics of camera use.
Please bring a digital or a print camera and film
if you need it. Please be aware that film processing is not available so you will be limited on
sharing and receiving critiques of work in
progress.
Recommended reading: Bayles and Orland, Art
and Fear; Phillips, God Is At Eye Level; Gross and
Shapiro, The Tao of Photography.
Creativity Without Limits:
Point Zero Painting
Michele Cassou
For many of us it is difficult to simply let go and
create. Programmed to fear being judged, we set
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narrow boundaries on our creativity. The “dragons” of product, meaning, and control limit our
choices of subjects, colors, and forms. However,
once we find Point Zero, the ground from
which creation springs, we can push these fears
aside and recapture the magic of spontaneous
creation. This work offers practical ways to dissolve creative blocks and find inspiration so
that, in a state of infinite possibility, art becomes
not a means to an end but a place we inhabit, a
place to explore our true selves and the mystery
of our lives. Michele Cassou has created an original approach to painting as a tool for self-discovery and spiritual exploration, guiding students
for more than twenty years. This workshop is
five days of painting, support, stimulation, free
play, and self-realization for artists and seekers
of all stripes, educators, counselors, meditators—
anyone with a thirst to revitalize the creative
juices. No experience is necessary, just the desire
to unleash your spontaneous self-expression.
Please bring an apron.
For more information visit www.michelecassou.com.
Recommended reading, viewing, and listening:
All materials are available at www.michelecassou.com.
Books: Cassou, Point Zero: Creativity Without
Limits, Life, Paint and Passion, Questions: To Awaken
Your Creative Power to the Fullest, Kids Play:
Igniting Children’s Creativity, The Buddhist Art
Doctor, and Teachers that Dare. DVDs: Cassou,
Birth of a Process, Point Zero, The Flowering of
Children’s Creativity, and Awakening of the Mystic.
CDs: Cassou, Creativity Without Limits, Creativity
Rediscovered, and Spiritual Aspects of Creativity (6
volumes).
ties, such as the inner critic, the abandoned
child, the pleaser, or the angry protector. Some
of them carry pain from childhood and some
protect us from experiencing this pain. These
parts are often locked in chronic combat with
one other, creating bodily tension and illness.
We each have a spiritual center, which IFS calls
the Self, which is compassionate, understanding,
and grounded. Through IFS you can learn to
stay in Self and develop a loving, trusting relationship with each of your parts. This allows you
to access the childhood memories behind their
pain, and heal those parts, allowing your body to
release and come alive.
Through experiential exercises you will be able
to enter your inner world, access your true Self,
reconnect with your strength and joy, reclaim
excluded parts of your body and mind, and
transform them into valuable resources for your
growth.
Leadership for Emergent Executives
and Entrepreneurs (LEEP)
James Wheal
Transformational Journeys through
Your Psyche and Body: Internal Family
Systems Therapy and Somatic
Resourcing
Jay Earley, Bonnie Weiss & JoAnna Chartrand
Our psychological issues show up as a multitude
of conflicting inner voices and tensions in our
bodies. In this workshop, we will work with
Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) to
explore our subpersonalities, befriend them, and
heal them. We will integrate this with Somatic
Resourcing to transform those bodily patterns
that are inhibiting our full embodiment. This
combined process allows you to bring love to all
aspects of yourself and heal your mind and body,
leading to aliveness and fluid living.
IFS recognizes that our psyches are made up of
different parts, sometimes called subpersonali-
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Do you agree with Michelangelo’s challenge to
“criticize by creating?” Do you see more possibilities for positive change in these disruptive
times than problems? Are you looking for practical training and tools to close the giant gap
between contemporary spirituality and popular
business culture—in a way that you can apply
directly and powerfully to your work in the
world? LEEP combines core insights of leading
academic theory, as developed at Harvard,
Columbia, Stanford, and Cambridge, with integral practices including body, mind, and spirit
training, and a strong grounding in the world of
organizations and business. LEEP enables leaders to harness their purpose and their power.
This course is for emergent leaders who sense
something is shifting, and know that they have
a role to play in bringing what’s next into the
world.
Take the LEEP and you will be shown:
• How leaders create greater value, and how to
unlock your own development to do the same
• How to remove blockages that stop you from
achieving what you want, and take control of
the narrative of your life and career
• How to address conflict clearly, and use the
opportunity to strengthen relationships with
your colleagues, clients and community
• How to live and serve from the dynamic
center of your life—always.
Be Present Empowerment Model®:
Actualizing An Inclusive Vision of
Community
Lillie Allen & Eugene Allen
What does it take to create and sustain positive
change in this world?
We live in the social, political, and economic systems that we seek to change. While many
understand that they are affected, they do not
necessarily comprehend just how deep the
impact is on everyone, including children and
young adults. Be Present, Inc. believes that in
order to create peace and justice for all, people
are responsible for examining their role and
society’s role in perpetuating the “isms” (racism,
classism, sexism, etc.). It is from this understanding that we can model new ways to foster tolerance, promote peace, and partner for justice.
This family-friendly workshop teaches the Be
Present Empowerment Model®, a leadership
curriculum about how to develop self-awareness, understanding, voice, and purpose in
building sustainable relationships in our diverse
and changing world. Participants will learn in a
community of practice how to:
• Explore in a safe space the impact of race,
gender, class, sexual orientation, and gender
identity issues
• See the shifting and fluid nature of our social
identities
• Foster open dialogue and broadened
understanding
• Develop enduring partnerships for change.
Children and youth, our next generation of leaders, are active participants in this workshop.
Children of all ages are welcome.
special programs
HANNS BECKER
S
T
he programs listed below are either
part of an ongoing series, formatted
unusually, or longer than the standard
Esalen workshop.
February 13–March 13
28-Day Esalen® Massage Practitioner
Certification Training
Brita Ostrom, Dean Marson & Tom Case
This course is for those who plan to professionally
pursue massage or another body-mind discipline,
or for those seeking an in-depth experience in
bodywork. It will offer the big picture of the
Esalen approach: massage skills, the interweaving
of body-mind-spirit, sensory awareness practice,
meditation, psychological aspects, self-care, and
more.
Students will study massage as a tool for optimal
wellbeing and stress reduction and as a valued
aspect of transpersonal growth. The course offers
150 hours of comprehensive massage basics: centering skills, lengthening integrative strokes,
movement and stretches, detailed structural work,
and an energetically balanced approach. Brief
anatomical explorations will link each segment.
Students will have ample time for guided practice
with each other. Body mechanics, self-care, and
innovation will be emphasized.
Upon satisfactory completion, and after documenting 30 additional massages at your home site,
a State Approved Certificate of Completion for
150 hours will be issued. The certification fee is
$100. If you are applying this certificate toward
your 250-hour California Massage Therapy
Council Certification, you can later add on 100
hours of additional bodywork coursework to
equal 250 hours, per the required timeline.
The workshop is designed for those exploring the
possibility of a new career, practitioners looking
for fresh insights, therapists or medical personnel
seeking a more holistic approach, or for personal
growth. Although Esalen has been approved to
operate by the former Bureau for Private
Postsecondary and Vocational Education since
1983 (school code 2700571), our pending application for re-approval to operate has not yet been
reviewed by the newly reorganized Bureau for
Private Postsecondary Education.
Please request an application form by sending an
e-mail to 28-day@esalen.org or calling 831-6673005. Tuition is $4,910 for standard shared accommodations and $3,700 for bunk bed accommodations. Scholarship assistance may be available.
($10 materials fee paid directly to leaders)
Esalen® Massage 500-hour
Certification Program
Esalen’s 500-hour Certification Program offers
advanced studies to Esalen Massage Practitioner
certified graduates. The focused coursework is
carefully selected from the regular workshop
93
To be eligible, students must first complete an
Esalen-approved certification program of at least
150 hours and must have earned their certificate. When students return to Esalen for their
first post-certificate course, they select an advisor from the teaching staff, give the advisor an
assessment massage, and draw up a study plan.
The 500-hour program is approved by the
California Board of Consumer Affairs (formerly
the California BPPVE) and the NCBTMB.
riculum. Completion of six segments qualifies
one for a beginner’s certificate; ten segments
qualifies for an intermediate certificate; fourteen
qualifies for an advanced certificate. For complete program information, including a list of all
segments, please visit www.esalen.sbgi.edu.
The program can also be taken as a more scholarly course of study which includes additional
reading and writing for students who would like
to earn graduate credit toward a doctoral degree
program at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. To
use this training as credit toward a PhD degree,
students must first apply and be accepted in the
Professional Specialty PhD program at SBGI.
Information on the Somatic Psychology
Foundations Certificate and PhD Professional
Specialty Program is available at www.sbgi.edu.
For information or to register, call 805-963-6896
or e-mail dharkin@sbgi.edu.
Please note: An approved application is required;
contact Esalen for registration only after your
application has been accepted by SBGI.
Fees include the standard workshop fees (for
example, ten 5-day courses), plus approximately
$500 advisor and certification fees.
The SBGI courses, dates, and faculty offered
during this catalog period are:
For more details see the Esalen Massage and
Bodywork Association website:
www.esalen.org/sites/emba.
Body, February 6-11, Pat Ogden & Kathy Steele,
Trauma, Attachment, Dissociation and the
with Dyrian Benz & JoAnna Chartrand.
The Santa Barbara Graduate Institute Embodied
Psychotherapy Certificate Program in Relational
Somatic Psychology gives participants a foundation in the leading-edge field of somatic psychology. It is designed to meet the needs of professionals and practitioners (educators, health care
professionals, therapists, psychologists) as well
as individuals interested in learning an in-depth
somatic/psychological perspective. SBGI faculty
or affiliates teach all courses. An approved application is required. Complete the application
online at www.esalen.sbgi.edu and allow one week
for processing and for you and Esalen to be
informed of your status.
This certificate program is a series of courses
inspired by the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute
somatic psychology post-graduate academic cur-
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Psyche and Body: Internal Family Systems
Therapy and Somatic Resourcing, June 26-July
1, Jay Earley, Bonnie Weiss & JoAnna
Chartrand.
The Upledger Institute
The Upledger Institute is a healthcare resource
center recognized worldwide for its comprehensive education programs, advanced treatment
options, and unique outreach initiatives. Since
1985 The Upledger Institute has been guiding
healthcare practitioners toward greater understanding of the human anatomy, deeper realization of alternative therapies, and the rewards of
applying innovative techniques in ways that
complement conventional care. More than
90,000 therapists have benefited from the training they’ve achieved through Upledger. For
more information, visit www.upledger.com.
To register for an Upledger Institute course
hosted by Esalen, please first contact Upledger
by calling 1-800-233-5880. Only after you have
reserved a place in the course through Upledger
will you be able to reserve your accommodations with Esalen by calling 831-667-3005.
(Course fees and accommodations are separate.)
March 27-April 1, Siegmar Gerken & Cornelia
Gerken, with Dyrian Benz & JoAnna Chartrand.
The Upledger Institute courses, dates, and
instructors offered during this catalog period
are:
The Embodied, Systemic Group: Body
The Upledger Institute’s CraniosSacral I,
Awareness and the Group Field, May 15-20,
May 22-27, Eric Moya.
Attachment, Attunement and Adult Sexuality,
The Santa Barbara Graduate
Institute Embodied
Psychotherapy Certificate
Program in Relational Somatic
Psychology
Transformational Journeys through Your
Rae Johnson & Dyrian Benz, with JoAnna
Chartrand.
CHARANJIT S JABBAL
schedule and encompasses a broad and specialized knowledge of bodywork, psychological and
communication skills, awareness practices, and
movement kinesthetic studies. This curriculum
is tailored to each student’s schedule, ability, and
professional goals. An on-site massage teacher/
advisor provides personal guidance and assessment throughout the program. The foundations
of human anatomy and physiology are studied
away from Esalen, at approved trainings near
where students live. The course is designed to
link body-mind-spirit in a professional bodywork study and practicum.
S
work study program
T
At the heart of the Work Study experience are
the evening sessions. During these meetings,
which occur four to five evenings per week,
work scholars in each discipline meet together
for core studies. The group leader or leaders for
each discipline are highly experienced teachers
who coordinate the course of study and guide
scholars throughout the month. As a complement to their studies, work scholars participate
in Esalen’s daily operations by volunteering 32
hours per week, usually in the housekeeping
department or the kitchen, in exchange for their
housing and meal costs. Contemplative and
transformative practices are woven into the work
environment at Esalen, so each day there are
valuable opportunities for self and group exploration, including group process and check-in.
The Legacy Program is a second type of twentyeight day work study experience at Esalen. With
class sessions meeting just twice a week, with
one intensive day of classes during the month,
Legacy work scholars have more flexibility in
their schedules to attend residential education
classes (regularly occurring learning events
designed for Esalen staff ) and daily movement
arts programs. Legacy programs are usually a
mix of work scholars and Esalen staff. Legacy
work scholars also volunteer 32 hours per week
with an Esalen department, and the tuition for
Legacy is the same as the traditional work study
program.
Work scholars are selected by application only.
After your application has been accepted you
may register for the program. Some of the work
can be physically challenging, including lifting,
bending, and repetitive movements. Please be
sure you are capable of the work you may be
assigned. Work scholars are assigned to departments on the basis of community need, so
please be ready to jump in anywhere.
The work study application is on page 100.
Please note: The Work Study program is designed to
explore and apply human values and potentials. It is
DANIEL BIANCHETTA
he Work Study Program is a twentyeight day immersion in Esalen’s integrative approach to personal and social
development. The program combines a rigorous
course of study in one area of transformative
practice with the opportunity for deep relationship with the Esalen land and community. Work
Study is a rich and challenging way to embody
the idea that mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and social dimensions of the self are inextricably connected. Please see the following
pages for descriptions of work study courses.
not intended as a substitute for therapy or as a “cure.”
Esalen encourages work scholars to refrain from alcohol use during their stay. No pets, drugs, or violence
allowed. We cannot accommodate children.
Work Study Programs 2011
December 19–January 16
Peaceful Body Peaceful Mind
Oliver Bailey writes, “Even though you no longer
live in the primitive jungle of our ancestors your
nervous system still reacts as if you do. This causes
the sympathetic nervous system to constantly
react with a fight, flight, or freeze response that
served you well then, but now only makes you
stressed out and on alert to danger when you don’t
need to be. Accessing your parasympathetic nervous system is the antidote. The parasympathetic
nervous system is the normal resting state of your
body, brain, and mind, and it produces a feeling of
relaxation and a sense of peace.”
This work scholar month will focus on massage,
meditation, and self-inquiry as a means to access
the parasympathetic in order to calm your nervous system down and assist you in experiencing
peace. Although this is not massage training, you
will learn some basic Esalen® Massage and other
energetic bodywork practices to address and
relieve your body tension and stress patterns,
which often fly under the radar of your awareness. Meditation has proven to be an effective way
to calm the mind and body and stop the reactive
fight, flight, or freeze response of the sympathetic
nervous system. Self-inquiry is an ancient method
of looking into the nature of the self and also
opens up a still, silent, and peaceful space inside
you, that is always there, but often covered over by
your personal stories.
Oliver invites you to be curious about what it’s
like when you are not constantly on the alert for
what might go wrong, and what it’s like to live
from the peaceful center of your being.
Legacy Program:
Yoga as a Practice of Devotion
and Surrender
The fruition of yoga is the state of connection
with the deepest source of our consciousness,
often described as a sacred and blissful union
between the student, or bhakta, and his Beloved.
In shorter yoga classes we are often preoccupied
with the physical aspects of our practice, trying
to assume the yoga postures (asanas), and for
many students yoga can be reduced to a stretching and strengthening exercise.
In this course, Johanna Holloman and Carl
Swanson will take time to explore yoga practice
as a way to open the heart, mind, and body more
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fully in a spirit of bhakti, or devotion. Participants
will be shown how to approach each asana from
the inside out and learn how to move energy
and consciousness through the body, rather
than just assume yogic shapes.
In addition to asana, we will practice pranayama
(conscious breathing techniques) and kirtan
(devotional chanting), an ancient traditional
practice of Bhakti yoga. As we surrender ourselves into these practices, we further open our
hearts to realizing our connection with the
divine. All levels of practice and experience are
welcome. Please bring a yoga mat.
January 16–February 13
to remain content with intellectual wisdom, we
deceive ourselves and limit our possibilities.
While we cannot change the past, we can
change ourselves and what we have come to
believe about ourselves and our capacity for intimacy and belonging. This kind of inner transformation occurs in what philosopher Martin
Buber called “I–Thou” relationships, through a
process of personal dialogue that is shaped by
mutual respect and validation.
Spinal Awareness, a program of health and healing (with humor). Spinal Awareness is a way of
learning that improves body awareness, flexibility, posture, and most chronic and acute conditions of the body. Taught with movement, touch,
and group interaction, it is based on the work of
Moshe Feldenkrais, Taoist-Chinese-Indonesian
martial art, and the Esalen experience.
Spinal Awareness emphasizes learning how to
move in ways that stimulate your awareness and
support the health of your own body. Lessons
inspired by Indonesian Silat will also be used to
stimulate the energy body, effecting internal
health and increasing energy. Students will participate in floor exercises that organize and integrate the spinal column, and standing lessons
that improve better balance and fluidity.
The course will include hands-on lessons, safe
and noninvasive, to greatly speed improvements.
Fun partner lessons will be intermixed to help
bring about not only freedom in the body but a
Legacy Program:
Relational Gestalt Process
In order to develop a strong and flexible sense of
self, we must engage in the ongoing process of
developing our awareness and discovering our
own personal truths. These truths may cause us
pain before giving us a new freedom and expanding our world horizons. Turning toward our
intellect and away from feeling can be a result of
painful childhood experiences. When we choose
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• Asana: the physical body. Use alignment
instructions and the messages in your body as
a guide to find a personal yoga. Develop your
natural ability to listen, sense, and feel, and to
hold yourself in a nurturing way
A month of Relational Gestalt Process with
Dorothy Charles will provide participants a
group setting in which to develop awareness
and self-responsibility, as well as to create relationships that are supportive and enlivening.
Gestalt theory, body awareness exercises, dyads,
and group process will be part of this program.
• Pranayama: the action of proper breath. Develop
the ability to breathe in life, and expand and
enliven the flow of life-force (prana)
February 13–March 13
• Meditation: the focus on the state of mind.
Find that place of calm, centered balance and
stillness
Spiritual Massage: Lightbody Infusion
Please bring a yoga mat.
Spinal Awareness
Patrick Douce will lead an in-depth experience of
During this program led by Jan Sinclair and Rob
Wilks, you can develop a heightened sense of
body awareness and self-awareness, deepen your
practice on the mat, and take those skills into
your life off the mat. The regular practice of yoga
can generate a healthy belief system based on
direct experience of the world through a more
flexible nervous system. All levels of experience
are welcome. Topics include:
that works directly on the energy body, balancing the chakras, cleansing old thought forms,
and gently facilitating release of emotional, physical, and spiritual blockages. Born into a family
of healers with a generations-old tradition, Maria
Lucia Bittencourt Sauer studied and continues
to study with healers in her native Brazil, where
Spiritism—receiving healing knowledge from the
spirit world—is very familiar. In 1979 she came
to Esalen (where she spent seven years living on
property) and was sponsored by Esalen
cofounder Dick Price to learn Spiritual Massage
from Brazilian healer Luiz Gasparetto.
Maria Lucia emphasizes intentionality as the
fundamental tool of any healing art designed to
move energy.
Come and practice this wonderful healing technique and also practice Shamanic Ways to help
each other find parts of our souls lost in early
traumas or other past events. Participants must
attend all sessions.
Legacy Program:
Yoga for Optimal Living
Practicing yoga in full awareness is practice for
living your life in full awareness. Teaching yoga
is a system through which you can directly
access the wisdom of life, and awaken to your
human potential by supporting the knowledge
of the body, breath, mind, and natural alignment.
March 13–April 10
Relational Gestalt Process
In order to become whole we must engage in
the ongoing process of discovering our own personal truth. This truth may cause us pain before
giving us a new freedoms and expanding our
world horizons. When we choose to remain
content with intellectual wisdom, we deceive
ourselves and limit our possibilities. As a result
of painful childhood experiences we turn
toward our intellect and away from feeling. We
cannot change the past. We can change ourselves. Our sense of who we are was developed
in relationship. Creating new ways of being
requires engaging in relationships that honor
who we are and what we need.
A month of Relational Gestalt Process with
Dorothy Charles will provide participants a
group setting in which to develop awareness
and self responsibility, as well as to create relationships that are supportive and enlivening.
Identifying, articulating and expressing emotion
in relationship will be the central theme of the
group. Gestalt, body awareness exercises, dyads
and group process will be part of this month
long program to achieve this end.
Legacy Program:
Beneath the Surface: Skills for Working
with a Lifetime of Tissue History
grounded and comfortable in your body, with an
increased capacity to remain present within
yourself and with others.
Almost everybody is aware of areas in their body
that are tight and are painful and uncomfortable. We usually want to solve it with immediate
answers—massage, painkillers, avoidance. Those
immediate answers can be wonderful, but don’t
always address the factors which perpetuate
and/or recreate the problem. Our movements,
gestures, and postures are entombed in our tissues and the way they move—and can be powerful places to maintain our problems as well as
look to long term healing and self-awareness.
26 hours of CE credit for bodyworkers; see page 113.
This 26-hour course led by Eric Moya is an
exploration of how these tissue patterns play a
role in our sense of Self—good and bad. Using
manual therapy and self-awareness techniques,
this course will be about discovering how your
patterns manifest in your tissues as well as how
to support others in accessing their tissue patterns for long term change. No bodywork experience is needed. For bodyworkers and therapists, there will be additional time scheduled to
discuss how to chart and support these skills in
a therapeutic practice.
April 10–May 8
Practicing Presence through
Body-Centered Awareness
“The issues are in the tissues.” Habitual beliefs
and behaviors formed early in life lead to habitual ways of responding that limit life experience. Our bodies are our greatest resource. They
provide a direct path for exploring these unconscious beliefs and the emotions tied to them. By
increasing awareness of our bodies, we connect
with the here and now, where change and
growth are possible.
This experiential class will blend the slow, developmental movement of Cortical Field Reeducation
with the mindfulness practices of Hakomi and
Gestalt. Patrice Hamilton uses these awareness
practices to assist individuals in reclaiming and
integrating forgotten or denied aspects of self.
Working in a supportive group environment
creates a container in which new ways of moving and being can be explored and expressed.
Exploring with curiosity and compassion allows
for release of physical restrictions and suppressed emotions. You will emerge feeling more
Legacy Program:
5Rhythms®: Form, Fluidity and
Freedom
Energy moves in waves. Waves move in patterns.
Patterns move in cycles. A human is just this, energy,
waves, patterns, cycles.
—Gabrielle Roth
In this time of great change in our world, we are
all searching for a sense of freedom. It is a relief
and a joy to have a practice to help us navigate
both inner and outer terrain. Led by Lucia Rose
Horan, this program will be an exploration of
how form can lead to fluidity, and how fluidity
can lead to freedom.
The 5Rhythms practice is a moving meditation,
an improvisational form of dance. It is a map of
the energetic wave that we see in the patterns,
rhythms, and cycles of life.
Legacy Program:
Cultivating Ki Energy
The essential core of this training is the conscious development of the life force, or ki energy, for creating health, inner peace, and transformation. Everyday stresses and unresolved tension and trauma deplete us of vibrancy and wellbeing, leading to dis-ease. This program will
offer self-care skills and practices to rebalance
and consciously cultivate one’s own energy.
Char Pias will initiate participants into Komyo
Reiki Kai, levels 1 and 2. This lineage of reiki is
both a spiritual practice and a healing art, with a
direct link to its Japanese founder Mikao Usui
(1865-1926). Students will learn how to give
hands-on energy treatment to others without
depleting their own vital force. The training will
include instruction in meditation and the gentle
movements of qigong practice. Students will
receive a reiki certificate upon successful completion of the course. A manual will be provided
by the instructor.
Flowing connects us to the feminine. Staccato
connects us to the masculine. Chaos marries
and integrates these two energies. As a result, we
find transformation in Lyrical. From this transformative space we are connected to Stillness.
The nature of stillness invites compassion and
connection.
We will investigate these questions through the
gateway of the body. How can we create fluidity?
How does this body want to express and unwind
the experience of humanity? We will use the practices of The 5Rhythms dance, poetry/writing, art,
ritual theater, compassionate touch (self-care massage), and sharing circles to guide our experience.
May 8–June 5
T’ai Chi
Kenn Chase leads a monthlong intensive explo-
ration of the entire Yang-style T’ai Chi Ch’uan
sequence. Students will study the fifty-four postures of this ancient movement meditation, with
hours of practice and refinement. Kenn will
integrate Feldenkrais® Awareness Through
Movement exercises into the class, helping students to free the body for more efficient mastery
of the T’ai Chi forms. Movement analysis and
Functional Integration will also be part of the
program, helping to relieve stress and pains arising from chronic misuse of posture.
Recommended reading: Stiene and Stiene, The
Japanese Art of Reiki.
June 5–July 3
Soul Motion™ and Gestalt Awareness
Practice
Many of us live suspended between the yearning for self-expression and the fear of exposure,
the tendency to hide and the desire to offer ourselves to the world, the oneness of spiritual
unity and the complexity of human interactions. These paradoxes are the focus of a month
led by Zuza Engler. Exploring movement from
the inside out and the practice of presence—
through SoulMotion™ and Gestalt Awareness
Practice—students will be guided in discovering
the unfolding of their own dance and supported
in opening to life’s constant pulsation between
contraction and expansion, between dropping
into oneself and extending toward another.
Participants will practice skills for moving fluidly with the challenges of relationship, attuning
to the generosity of an undefended heart, and
accessing the larger Presence that breathes us
into Being.
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Legacy Program:
The Body, Self and Relationship
The most powerful impulse we are born with is
to attach to our caregivers. Whenever that was a
fulfilling experience we developed a trust in
ourselves and others. Whenever that exchange
was flawed, as it inevitably was, then we doubted ourselves and our experience. With compassion, courage, and humor, Ken Robins will lead
this exploration of the biological, psychological, and emotional journeys we share as we seek
to find our own innate wisdom in this profound
arena of human life.
This workshop will explore the body/mind
connection and will use both experiential and
didactic instruction. The goal is to help participants into a more fully realized sense of self,
boundaries, and sensations, and use these tools
to create more mindful, satisfying interpersonal
relationships.
The distance from your pain, your grief, your
unattended wounds, is the distance from your
partner. And the distance from your partner is the
distance from the living truth, your own great nature.
Whatever maintains that distance, that separation
from ourselves and our beloveds, must be investigated
with mercy and awareness. This distance is not
overcome by one giving up their space to another,
but by both partners entering together the unknown
between them. The mind creates the abyss but the
heart crosses it.
—Stephen and Ondrea Levine,
from their book, Embracing the Beloved.
July 3–31
Gestalt Skills and Embodied
Relationships
“We develop relationships with ourselves and
others through the physicality of our vision,
smell, touch, and movement,” says Michael
Clemmens. “These relationships, or dances,
shape what we believe is possible and how we
behave in the present. In this program our focus
will be on the ways in which we create relationships through our bodies. By attending to our
present dance with others we can become more
aware of our existing context and optional ways
of interacting.
“The structure of the program will be experiential exercises, practice sessions, and group discussion to develop our awareness of self and
the group. We will begin with our earliest
movements (prior to birth) and then explore
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how we co-create our bodily membership in
the more complex gestalts of family, groups,
and cultures. Our goals will be to experience
how we create relationships through embodiment, and to develop skills in attending to ourselves and others.”
July 31–August 28
Sharing Your Life Story
Everything in your life, from the mundane to
the extraordinary, is a story waiting to be told.
During this program led by Ann Randolph you
can discover your own unique and powerful
story. Michel de Montaigne, the great personal
essayist, said “Every man has within himself the
entire human condition.” The intention of this
workshop is for you delve deep into your own
personal narrative. Writing from your deepest
source, you can gain insight and self-understanding that can bring peace and healing. We will
then make our words leap from the page to the
stage, sharing them orally to uncover the power
of performance to transform your life and your
listeners. This is a program for those seeking to
explore personal essay, memoir, solo performance, or the sacred practice of journaling.
Through improvisation, writing exercises, and
group discussion, you will find your authentic
voice, along with a way to express it. Ann
Randolph creates a supportive, fun, and dynamic space to create. Topics include:
• Writing exercises to stimulate memory
• Learning to structure the narrative in a
compelling way
• Transforming your ideas/stories into
performance
• Discovering ways to create spontaneously
• Overcoming performance anxiety
• Tools to release yourself from the inner critic
• Playing with multiple characters and
contradictions within ourselves
August 28–September 25
Permaculture
The answers and solutions to some of the
world’s most pressing questions in relation to
the environment, economics, and social systems
are explored during this month-long permaculture design course that focuses on creating and
designing a culture that is regenerative in nature.
Together, scholars and teachers will create an
open learning environment that includes discussion, activities, presentations, and hands-on projects. By using Esalen’s facilities, gardens, and
work environments as a microcosm of the larger
world, Benjamin Fahrer will facilitate this powerful and transformative journey together with a
number of premier permaculture teachers.
Permaculture in essence is based in relationship
and responsibility and is a set of techniques and
principles for designing sustainable human
communities. The skills one gains during this
training include a base understanding of design
and development principles used in small- and
large-scale applications. Now more than ever we
have to empower ourselves with these skills in
these great times of transition.
In this course we will focus on the concepts
and methods of designing a more sustainable
life and world. Topics and activities include:
• Personal sustainability for a balanced life
• Effective communication and interpersonal
skills for strong relationships
• Reading the land: identification and
classification of land components
• Earth stewardship: soil renovation, restoration,
and composting
• Hands-on intensive in “natural” buildings and
earthen construction
• Trees and their energy transactions
• Water awareness: health and conservation
Participants will be empowered with the confidence to live and function in a more just, sacred,
and sustainable future.
September 25–October 23
Streams of Energy
Jim Gallas leads this program of Eastern body-
work and movement, including Reiki 1
Certification, a thorough overview of Shiatsu
Massage, an introduction to meridian theory, and
an easy-to-learn, powerful Chi Kung form. Various
meditations, self-massage, and improv games will
be used to encourage awareness and expression.
The program is designed to open students to their
own innate healing potentials, to the power of
safe, therapeutic touch, and to being more fully
present in their ongoing unfolding. Participants
will also receive valuable tools to facilitate the
healing of others. In a spirit of compassion, laugh-
ter, and expanding awareness, students will be
nurtured and nourished by the group interaction
and by a deeper connection to Self.
October 23–November 20
The Heart of Buddhism
The Buddha offered a timeless teaching on how
to live a life that is sourced from kindness, compassion, and appreciation. These teachings and
practices are as applicable today as they were
two thousand years ago. We all have the ability
to access the innate wisdom and compassion of
the heart, all we have do is turn inward through
meditation and eventually we will uncover an
endless source of happiness.
During this course Noah Levine will be joined
by Spirit Rock Community Dharma teacher
Vinny Ferraro, to guide you into your heart’s
depths through a series of guided meditations,
small group explorations, lectures, and dialogue.
The month will be based upon the Buddha’s
teachings of the Divine Abodes of heart—kindness, compassion, appreciation, and equanimity,
as well as an in-depth process of forgiveness.
All levels of experience are welcome, but be
warned you will be asked to open your heart
and stand undefended in the presence of your
own truth.
November 20–December 18
Nonviolent Communication
I often say we’ve got a budget deficit that’s important,
we’ve got a trade deficit that’s critical, but what I
worry about most is our empathy deficit.
—U.S. President Barack Obama
During this month of intensive immersion in
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) principles
and practices with Jean Morrison, participants
are offered the opportunity to strengthen their
ability to:
• Live from a consciousness of compassion, for
yourself and with others
• Make peace with conflicts affecting emotional
health and wellbeing
• Replace distressing habits of mind and
language with new habits that create
compassion, connection, understanding,
and healing
• Liberate your thinking and reactions in order
to transform anger, hurt, and guilt into energy
and expressions that serve life
• Clarify and express emotions and needs,
distinct from blame
• Make empowering requests distinct from
demands and expectations
• Apply NVC principles and skills to your goals
and aspirations
The sessions include a balance of playful exploration, thoughtful inquiry, powerful exercises
for skill-development, and sharing of best practices with participants’ real situations. Guest presenters will augment our NVC practice with
their expertise in the Enneagram, Mindful
Meditation, art, and movement.
December 18–January 15
Vital Development BioDanza®:
The Fundamental Dance of Life
Vital Development Biodanza is a unique and
exciting practice of human potential and
activism that opens your heart and enlivens
your life. This month, Jaquelin Levin invites you
into your existential creativity, and the seduction and sensuality of being alive.
“The fusion of music, emotion, voice work, creativity, ceremony, and community, explored
through movement, our most primal form of
expression, is vital in this group process to
evoke a higher consciousness grounded in
peace, pleasure, kindness, joy, self-confidence,
and wellbeing,” writes Jaquelin. “When we commit to transform and empower ourselves somatically and soulfully, our lives change. Our original essential expression of community and
instinctive compassion awakens, and helps us to
remember the poetry of relationship with ourselves, with others, and with all of life.
“The work is rooted in the Eros-Biocentric principle wherein the life-giving force of love is
placed at the very center of life. Are you ready to
unfurl your soul from chrysalis and take flight?”
Additional programs are always
being added. Please visit
www.esalen.org for the latest
opportunities.
Commitment to the Work Study program is
from 4 PM of the first Sunday to 7:30 PM of
the final Sunday. Do not plan to take regularly
scheduled catalog workshops during your stay.
Fees: A deposit of $400 in US currency is
required with your application. Fees will not be
processed until your place in a program is
secured and you have accepted. The work scholar fee is $1095 for the first month and $1045 if
you stay for a second month. Fees are subject to
change and are due upon your arrival. Work
scholars may be invited to remain for a second
month depending on space and community
needs. There are no scholarships available for
the first month of the work study program.
Occasionally it is possible to stay for a longer
period as an extended student.
Food and Housing: Accommodations are
shared (occasionally co-ed), with up to four people to a room. Some work scholars stay at South
Coast Center, a staff complex located 1.5 miles
north of Esalen. Housing and meals are provided in exchange for 32 hours of volunteer work.
Cancellation Policy: If you choose to cancel,
you will be charged the following amount:
15+ days prior to start, $100; 8-14 days, $200; 3-7
days, $300; 0-2 days, $400. Please mail the application form, personal statement, and deposit to:
Work Study Program
Esalen Institute
55000 Hwy 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
or fax to:
Work Study Program
831-667-3069
We will contact you regarding your status
within 14 days of receiving your application.
For more information contact MaryAnne Will,
Work Study Coordinator, at the above address or
phone: 831-667-3010; fax: 831-667-3069; e-mail:
workstudy@esalen.org.
For full descriptions of all July–December 2011
Legacy Work Study programs, visit the Esalen
website.
99
Q
work study program application
please print legibly.
First Name _____________________________________ Last Name __________________________________________________ o Male o Female Today’s Date ______________________
Phone: Evening ( ————— ) ____________________________________ Day ( ————— ) ____________________________________ Cell ( ————— ) _______________________________________
Home Address __________________________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip __________________________________________________________________________
mo / day / yr
Country ____________________________ Occupation (previous, if retired)____________________________________________ Date of Birth _________________________ Age ___________
E-mail Address ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Do you have any limiting physical/emotional conditions (e.g., bad back, severe depression) which might affect your full participation in this
program? o Yes o No Are you currently taking any medication? o Yes o No
If yes to either of these questions, please include details in your personal statement.
If a former Work Scholar, list where you worked and approximate dates _________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Work Study Program is for 28 days, beginning at 4 pm on Sunday and ending at 7:30 pm on the final Sunday. Sometimes particular dates
and/or leaders are not available. List below, in order of preference, the dates/leaders for which you are available.
Please note: Space may become available up until the program start date. You must let us know if you wish to be removed from a wait list; if you’re on a wait
list and space becomes available, you will be notified for confirmation. If you cancel after placement, you will be charged a cancellation fee.
start date
Choice 1 ______________________________________________________ Leader _________________________________________ If full, wait list? o Yes o No
Choice 2 ______________________________________________________ Leader __________________________________________ If full, wait list? o Yes o No
Choice 3 ______________________________________________________ Leader __________________________________________ If full, wait list? o Yes o No
If your application is approved and we cannot give you your first choice, we will place you in your next available choice.
Work students may be invited to remain for a second term, depending on space availability and the needs of the Esalen community. Please indicate your availability for such an invitation (no obligation): o No extension o One-term extension
We encourage ridesharing. Are you bringing a vehicle? o Yes o No; Are you willing to give a ride? o Yes o No; Receive a ride? o Yes o No;
I wish to rideshare from (if different from above address) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Assignments to departments are made according to community labor needs (usually kitchen or housekeeping). However, if you prefer housekeeping or kitchen, or if you have landscaping skills, please list them below. o Place me wherever I’m most needed – or – note my preferences below.
Choice 1 __________________________________________________ Skills/Experience ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Choice 2 __________________________________________________ Skills/Experience ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Please attach a personal statement about your interest in the Work Study Program, telling us why you’d like to participate
and what you hope to take with you when you leave.
All applicants are required to sign a standard release-from-liability and assumption-of-risk form as a condition of participation
in the Work Study Program. This form will be mailed to you upon acceptance to the program.
Do you want van service? From o Monterey Airport, 2 pm ($40 fee); o Monterey Transit, 2:20 pm ($40); o San Francisco Airport, 11:45 am ($100).
Payment
o $400 deposit
o $1095
Name on Card_______________________________________________________________________________
o Check (U.S. banks only), attached and payable to Esalen Institute
Card No. ______________________________________________________________________________________
o MasterCard o VISA o American Express
Expiration Date _____________________________________________________________________________
If you are making a credit card deposit, the balance will be
automatically charged to your card five days before your arrival.
Billing Zipcode __________________________ CVV (security) code ______________________
Name and phone number (if different from above):
Applications cannot be considered without a deposit and a
personal statement included. Deposits are not processed until
your final acceptance into the program.
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
Authorizing Signature ____________________________________________________________________
100
R
biographical information
A
David Abram is an ecologist, anthropolo-
gist, and philosopher who lectures widely
around the world. He is the award-winning
author of Becoming Animal: An Earthly
Cosmology and The Spell of the
Sensuous. He is cofounder and director
of the Alliance for Wild Ethics.
www.wildethics.org. p. 8, 56
Mark Abramson is part of the Stanford
Center for Integrative Medicine and heads
Stanford’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Program. He teaches at Stanford’s School
of Medicine and is on staff at Stanford
Hospital. p. 13, 42
Mandy Aftel is an artisan natural perfumer and author of three books on natural
perfume, including Essence and
Alchemy: A Natural History of
Perfume. p. 20
Ramon V. Albareda is a clinical psychologist, theologian, and sexologist. He is
the founder/director of Estel, a personal
growth center and school of integral studies
in Barcelona, Spain. He coauthored
Nacidos de la Tierra: Sexualidad Origen
del Ser Humano. p. 81
Leah Alchin began her Tantric education in 1997. She is an advanced certified
Tantra Educator with the Source School of
Tantra Yoga and has her own private practice. A survivor of childhood sexual abuse,
she is a powerful advocate of Tantric sexual
awakening and healing. p. 58
Ronald Alexander is the director of the
Open Mind Training Institute, and leads
trainings internationally in mindfulness
and mind-body therapies and tranformational leaderhip. He is the author of Wise
Mind Open Mind. www.ronaldalexander.com. p. 76
Martine Amita Algier is a certified
trainer with The Center for Nonviolent
Communication and a founding member of
the West Marin Community Mediation
Board, teaching and consulting with families, business groups, schools, and other organizations in California and Europe since
the 1960s. p. 81
Suze Allen is a writer, editor, and coach.
She is the owner of Manuscript Mentor, the
creator of Mama-logues: Writing Workouts
for Mamas, and coauthor of The TimeStarved Woman’s Guide to Emotional
Wellbeing, with SD Shanti. www.manuscriptmentor.com and www.timestarvedwoman.com.. p. 87
Katchie Ananda is an internationally
recognized Anusara yoga teacher whose
leadership in yoga and social change
prompted Yoga Journal to name her one of
five top yoga teachers making change in the
world. Katchie has devoted more than 20
years to the study and integration of yoga.
www.yogasangha.com. p. 59
Susan Anderson has devoted 30 years
of clinical experience and research to helping
people resolve abandonment wounds and
overcome self-sabotage. Founder of the
Abandonment Recovery—Outer Child
movements, she is author of Taming your
Outer Child and The Journey from
Abandonment to Healing, among other
books. www.outerchild.net and
www.abandonment.net. p. 55
Elaine Aron is a scientist studying love,
close relationships, and highly sensitive persons. Her research has been featured in The
New York Times, Time Magazine, and
National Geographic. She is the author of
The Highly Sensitive Person series of
books. p. 79
Elliot Aronson is a social psychologist
who has taught at Harvard, Stanford, and
UC Santa Cruz. He has won all three of the
American Psychological Association’s highest awards. His 23 books include The Social
Animal and Mistakes Were Made (But
Not by Me!). p. 48
B
Oliver Bailey is a practitioner and
instructor of Esalen® Massage. His background includes training in Gestalt Practice,
neurolinguistic programming, intuitive
work, and meditation. p. 83, 88, 95
Julie Baker is a psychotherapist specializ-
ing in empowerment of the individual’s
authentic voice, recovery from substance
abuse, and navigation of life transitions. She
works with creative process as an expression
of one’s inner landscape. She has a private
practice in Marin County, Calif. juliehbaker@gmail.com. p. 65
Richard Balaban, a licensed clinical
psychologist and certified group psychotherapist, has taught at Indiana University and
SUNY at Buffalo. His passion is for his family, his work, and life’s journey. p. 22
Juergen Bamberger is an educator
and pioneer in the Gyrotonic field who has
trained countless Gyrotonic instructors
around the world. His 20-year teaching
experience is infused with his background in
dance, many modalities of bodywork and
movement techniques, and energy work.
p. 61
James Baraz has been teaching medita-
tion since 1978. He leads workshops internationally, is a founding teacher of Spirit
Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, Calif.
and is on the International Advisory Board
of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. James
coauthored Awakening Joy with
Shoshana Alexander. p. 10, 20, 49, 77
Jane Baraz has been practicing vipassana
meditation since 1976 and leads Awakening
Joy groups and workshops. She served on
the Spirit Rock Meditation Center board of
directors for eight years and helped start
the Spirit Rock Family Program. Jane also
teaches English as a second language.
p. 10, 20
Ellen Bass has supported and inspired
writers for 40 years. Her many books
include Mules of Love and The Human
Line (poetry) and The Courage to Heal,
which has sold over a million copies. She
teaches at Pacific University. www.ellenbass.com. p. 23
Sian Beilock is a psychology professor at
the University of Chicago and specializes in
the brain science behind performance. Her
research is regularly covered in the media by
CNN, The New York Times,NPR, and
others. www.sianbeilock.com. p. 13
Dyrian Benz is director of external programs for somatic psychology and a professor
at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute. He
wrote Group Field: A Practitioner’s
Guide and conducts trainings in Relational
Constellations. A cofounder of the Hakomi
Institute, Dr. Benz is currently a somatic
psychology educator in Santa Barbara,
Calif. p. 26, 47, 71, 94
Sam Berne is certified in behavioral
optometry/vision therapy and craniosacral
therapy, and a fellow in Syntonic optometry
light therapy. He has developed visual rehabilitation programs nationally and has
written three books. He is an adjunct faculty
member at Santa Fe Community College.
www.DrSamBerne.com. p. 18
Susan Bernstein helps people navigate
transitions by integrating their embodied
intelligence. Her transformational
approaches blend left-brain logic honed over
20 years in corporate America with rightbrain creative movement gleaned from pioneering research in mind-body psychology.
p. 89
Rich Berrett has committed more than
35 years to enhancing and embodying
awareness. He is a clinician, university professor, and founding president of Imagery
International. His extensive background
reflects the importance of body awareness,
imagery, family systems, Gestalt, and deep
learning. p. 27
Micheline Berry is a pioneer in the
healing integration of live world music with
yoga sadhana. Founder of Zen Dancing®
and the world music ensemble Shaman’s
Dream, she has produced and facilitated
over 500 ritual world music concerts, dance
performances, and multi-media events.
p. 11, 43
Cynthia Johnson Bianchetta is an
artist, dancer, and photographer, an authorized Continuum Movement teacher and
former director of the Weston Photographic
Gallery. p. 66
Daniel Bianchetta has been teaching
meditation and intuitive practice at Esalen
for more than 20 years. A photographer and
Esalen’s media coordinator, his photographic interests are the Big Sur coast and Native
American rock art. His work is collected
worldwide. p. 66
Judith Blackstone founded Realization
Process, a method of integrating nondual
realization, embodiment, and psychological
and relational healing. She is a psychotherapist and author of The Empathic
Ground, The Enlightenment Process,
Living Intimately, and The Subtle Self.
www.judithblackstone.com. p. 90
Charlie Bloom is an educator, therapist,
and seminar leader. He and his wife Linda
are cofounders of Bloomwork and coauthors
of Secrets of Great Marriages: Real
Truth from Real Couples about Lasting
Love and 101 Things I Wish I Knew
When I Got Married. He has facilitated
workshops internationally since 1982.
www.bloomwork.com. p. 27, 55
Linda Bloom is a licensed clinical social
worker, educator, and seminar leader. She
and her husband Charlie are cofounders of
Bloomwork and coauthors of Secrets of
Great Marriages: Real Truth from Real
Couples about Lasting Love and 101
Things I Wish I Knew When I Got
Married. She has facilitated workshops
internationally since 1986. www.bloomwork.com. p. 27, 55
Joseph Bobrow is a Zen master and
the founder and director of Deep Streams
Zen Institute. He is also a licensed psychologist, relational psychoanalyst, and a father.
His most recent book is Zen and
Psychotherapy: Partners in Liberation.
He teaches nationally. www.cominghomeproject.net. p. 12
Julie Bowden, psychotherapist and
author, specializes in childhood trauma,
substance abuse, and forgiveness. Coauthor
of Recovery: A Guide for Adult Children
of Alcoholics and Genesis: Spirituality
in Recovery from Childhood Traumas,
she has been teaching at Esalen for more
than 20 years. p. 22
Ann Bradney is director of the Radical
Aliveness/Core Energetics Institute of
Southern California. She studied under
Core Energetics founder John Pierrakos and
teaches internationally. Ann’s Radical
Aliveness model expands Core beyond the
individual, to address community healing
and world issues. p. 15
Daniel Brown is an associate clinical
professor of psychology at Harvard Medical
School. He is author of 13 books, including
Transformations of Consciousness
(with Ken Wilber and Jack Engler) and
Pointing Out the Great Way: The Stages
of Meditation in the Mahamudra
Tradition. p. 23
Naomi Brown, PhD, Stanford
University clinical psychologist, was raised
in Tokyo and has studied Buddhist meditation since childhood. In addition to clinical
practice, Naomi teaches a seminar series,
“Meditation Practices Across the Earth.”
She speaks and leads workshops nationally.
p. 14
101
Rick Brown is executive director for the
Institute for Relationship Therapy in Winter
Park, Florida. Rick was executive director for
Harville Hendrix’s Institute, and he lectures
and gives workshops across the country. He
has been married 33 years. p. 35
Vernon Bush is a singer/songwriter,
recording artist, musician and educator. He
is musical director and featured vocalist at
Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco,
teaches vocal workshops, and with his two
musical groups has toured Europe and elsewhere. p. 60, 62
C
Josiah Raison Cain was raised on an
organic farm in remote northern California.
He is an ecological designer with degrees
from UC Davis and Harvard, and a partner
at Design Ecology, a design and planning
firm specializing in green roofs, living walls,
and innovative water reuse systems. p. 81
Catherine Calderon is a registered
yoga teacher and professional salsa dancer.
Owner of Shambhala Yoga & Dance
Center in Brooklyn, she has studied
Anusara and tantra yoga, Taoist healing
practices, dance, and is a priestess in the
Afro-Cuban Yoruba tradition. p. 55
Hannah Campbell is the education
coordinator for Camp SEA Lab, a marine
science program based out of Monterey,
Calif. Her greatest joy is learning through
discovery and conveying information and
excitement to others about the natural
world. www.campsealab.org. p. 10, 62
Christine Carter, PhD, is a sociologist
and happiness expert who directs the Greater
Good Science Center’s parenting program in
Berkeley, Calif. She is also the author of
Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for
More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents.
www.greatergood.berkeley.edu. p. 10, 52
Charlie Cascio managed the Esalen
kitchen for six years. He is a chef, restaurateur, consultant, and lecturer on vegetarian
and living foods who has worked and
taught in the US and throughout Europe
for more than 30 years. Charlie wrote the
Esalen Cookbook. p. 57, 77
Tom Case has been practicing massage
for the past 16 years. He has been on the
Esalen massage staff since 1993. p. 28, 93
Joyce Catlett is an author, lecturer, and
workshop facilitator who has collaborated
with Dr. Robert Firestone in writing twenty
professional articles and seven books, most
recently The Ethics of Interpersonal
Relationships and Beyond Death
Anxiety: Achieving Life-Affirming
Death Awareness. p. 16
Joseph Cavanaugh is a licensed psy-
chotherapist in private practice in the Sierra
foothills and a psychology instructor at a
local community college. He has facilitated
personal-growth workshops throughout
California for the past 30 years. p. 12, 57
Leslie Cerier is a chef specializing in
whole foods and organic cuisine. She runs a
catering business that includes private and
group cooking instruction and coaching. She
has authored or coauthored numerous books
and teaches nationally. p. 43, 44
102
Alejandro Chaoul, PhD, brings
ancient Tibetan mind-body practices to
dharma students, cancer patients, and the
general public. He teaches at the University
of Texas Medical School in Houston, and
elsewhere in the US, Central America, and
Europe under the auspices of Ligmincha
Institute. p. 61, 62
Dorothy Charles has been a student
and teacher at Esalen since 1982. A student
of Esalen cofounder Dick Price, she combines
Esalen body-centered Gestalt with relational
Gestalt theory, and leads workshops in Asia,
Europe, and the US. p. 39, 82, 96
Kenn Chase has taught traditional
Yang-style t'ai chi ch'uan for 30 years and
has studied with several t'ai chi masters. A
certified Feldenkrais teacher, he is a stress
management consultant for Cardiology
Associates of Marin. p. 97
Mantak Chia is the founder of Universal
Healing Tao. Born in Bangkok, Thailand
in 1944, he began meditating with Buddhist
monks at age 6. He studied with White
Cloud Hermit, a Taoist Master living in the
mountains near Hong Kong. He has taught
Taoist practice since 1970. www.universaltao.com. p. 65
Chris Chouteau has been a teacher and
student of awareness practice and recovery
since 1989. He has facilitated change for
people and organizations over the past 30
years. p. 22
Joanna Claassen is Esalen’s Gazebo
School Park director, outdoor and early
childhood educator, and community organizer. She leads parent education and seminars for educators. Joanna is inspired by
work happening in Reggio Emilia, Italy,
and the No Child Left Inside outdoor education movement. p. 10, 66
Michael Clemmens is a licensed psy-
chologist and trainer based in Pittsburgh.
He has worked for more than 20 years with
individuals and groups focusing on the relationship between personality, physical
process, and culture. He teaches Gestalt with
training groups both nationally and internationally. p. 98
Gabe Cohen came up with the original
Second City troupe. Artistic director for
Hollywood Actors Theater, he also leads acting seminars for the Screen Actors Guild.
He was most recently seen in a recurring
role for The West Wing and in a featured
film role opposite Doris Roberts. p. 22
Chip Conley created America’s second
largest boutique hotel company, Joie de
Vivre, in 1987 at the age of 26. He is the
author of many inspirational business books
including Marketing That Matters: 10
Practices to Profit Your Business and
Change the World. p. 7, 66
Tesa Conlin has taught in France,
England, and Italy. She has been recognized
by the National Endowment of the
Humanities, National Council of Teachers
of English, and has loved every moment of
her twenty-eight years of teaching writing,
literary analysis, and acting. p. 10, 58
David Corbin is a shamanic practitioner
and teacher, serving on the faculty of the
Foundation for Shamanic Studies for more
than 15 years. He is coauthor of Weather
Shamanism: Harmonizing Our
Connection with the Elements and
CloudDancing: Wisdom from the Sky.
p. 32
Alyssa DeCaro is a percussionist, vocalist, and tap dancer. She has studied with
master teachers such as Babatunde Olatunji
and Anna Halprin, and is a graduate of
Tamalpa Institute. She’s been a choreographer/performer in the group Gamelan X
since 2005. www.bodyofsound.com and
www.openingpresence.com. p. 46
Ann Weiser Cornell is the best-selling
author of The Power of Focusing and
The Radical Acceptance of Everything.
She teaches her popular workshops in Inner
Relationship Focusing and Getting
Unblocked internationally, both in person
and by telephone bridge line. p. 91
Lorie Eve Dechar wrote Five Spirits:
Jean Couch, originally known for her
classic Runner’s Yoga Book, has shown
thousands of people of all ages how to
improve their health. She most recently
taught fifty physicians and their spouses, one
of whom wrote, “I now have hope for me
and my patients.” p. 78
Dixie Cox, cofounder of the Fun Institute
in Santa Cruz, Calif., has been teaching
people to re-create themselves through
improvisational acting classes since 1993.
She performs regularly with the improv
troupes Loose Cannon Theater and Crash
Test. p. 86
Stewart Cubley’s work has carried
him throughout the world in facilitating
groups to access the potential within
the human heart and imagination.
Originally a scientist, he has led seminars
in creativity for more than 30 years.
www.processarts.com. p. 65
Raphael Cushnir contributes to O, The
Oprah Magazine, and presents workshops
worldwide. He’s written five books, including The One Thing Holding You Back
and Surfing Your Inner Sea. His heart
was opened through profound grief. p. 60
D
Deanna Darby is a licensed psychotherapist in the Sierra foothills, specializing in
somatic psychotherapy. A certified massage
therapist for 20 years, her passion is bringing together mind, body, and heart to create
the opportunity for profound self-understanding and greater ease. p. 77
Constantine Darling has a 40-year
career teaching dance, martial arts, yoga,
Pilates, gymnastics, acupressure and applied
kinesiology to thousands of students. He
coauthored the forthcoming book Fields of
Consciousness. p. 75
David Darling is a Grammy Awardwinning composer, cellist and artistic director of Music For People. An internationallyacclaimed recording artist and educator for
more than 40 years, his album Mundannin
Kata, made with the Aborignal Singers of
the Bunum tribe, was one of the top-selling
ethnic albums on Amazon.com. p. 24
Erik Davis, is a writer, teacher, awardwinning journalist, and occasional performer. He wrote Techgnosis, Led
Zeppelin IV, and The Visionary State: A
Journey through California’s Spiritual
Landscape. Davis has taught at UC
Berkeley, UC Davis, Pacifica, and the
California Institute of Integral Studies.
www.techgnosis.com p. 45
Alchemical Acupuncture for
Psychological and Spiritual Healing.
She practices acupuncture, Chinese medicine, Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy,
Gestalt, and archetypal psychology. She
teaches at Tri-State College of Acupuncture
and is cofounder of the Alchemical Healing
Mentorship. p. 50
Carol DeSanto is the cofounder of
Nervous System Energy Work and a psychotherapist in private practice. She has
been a longtime student of Rev. Rosalyn
Bruyere. Her special interests in energy
work encompass addiction-recovery, health
and healing, and work with cancer and
chronic illness. p. 38
Harvey Deutch has been both a physi-
cal therapist and yogi for the past 25 years.
His life path has blended the intricate
knowledge of movement with the practice of
yoga. He is the owner and one of many
physical therapists at Red Hawk Physical
Therapy in San Francisco. p. 36
Karen Dietz is a business consultant,
coach, and former executive director of the
National Storytelling Network. With more
than 20 years of business experience and
consulting, she coaches emerging and seasoned leaders in becoming compelling storytellers as an essential skill and career
builder. p. 43
Thomas Joseph Doherty, PsyD,
has a therapy and consultation practice in
Portland, Ore., trains counselors at the
Lewis & Clark Graduate School, and is editor-in-chief of the journal Ecopsychology.
www.selfsustain.com. p. 59
Patrick Douce, one of Moshe Feldenkrais’s
first American students, has been associated
with Esalen since 1972. Since 1986 he lives
half of each year in Bali, developing programs with Indonesian Silat martial-artsfor-health schools. p. 17, 27, 87, 96
Jim Duffy is professor of psychiatry at the
University of Texas at M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center and at Baylor College of
Medicine. Dr. Duffy is a fellow of the
American Neuropsychiatric Association and
the American Academy of Hospice and
Palliative Medicine. p. 61
E
Chandra Easton studied Buddhist phi-
losophy, meditation, and Tibetan language
at the Library of Tibetan Works and
Archives in Dharamsala, India, and translated Tibetan Buddhist texts on meditation
with B. Alan Wallace. Chandra has taught
meditation and yoga since 2001. p. 10, 66
Karen Ely founded and directs A
Woman’s Way, a women’s retreat and
workshop program in Sedona, Ariz. She is
a facilitator and the author of Daring to
Dream: Reflections on the Year I Found
Myself and A Retreat of My Own. p. 24
Matt Englar-Carlson is an associate
professor of counseling at California State
University, Fullerton. A fellow of the
American Psychological Association, he specializes in educating helping professionals
about the mental-health needs of men. He is
coeditor of In the Room with Men. p. 62
Scott Engler, a longtime student of presence and healing, is a practitioner of
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy and
Lomi Somatic Education. He holds a black
belt in Aikido and lives in Petaluma, Calif.
with his wife Zuza. p. 49, 68
Zuza Engler has been on the spiral path
of kinesthetic investigation into consciousness for two decades, in motion, stillness,
and process inquiry. She is a long-term student and practitioner of Buddhism, Soul
Motion, and Gestalt Awareness Practice.
p. 49, 68, 97
Ulrika Engman has been dancing on the
yoga path since 1992, leading popular workshops and retreats worldwide. Certified in
Anusara Yoga and the Halprin Life/Art
Process, she combines the transformative
power of yoga with the expressive arts into
a celebration of the heart. p. 70
Geneie Everett is director and founder
of Trauma First Aide™ Associates, and has
been integrating multiple approaches from
Western medicine and native cultures since
1975. She teaches mind/body techniques,
working with trauma to mental health,
healthcare, military, educators, and first
responders. www.TraumaFirstAide.com.
p. 29
F
Jessica Fagan, a member of the Esalen
massage staff, is a dancer and performer
who is deeply immersed in the practice and
teaching of Eastern and Western somatic
therapies as well as Vinyasa yoga. p. 16
Benjamin Fahrer is an internationally
recognized Permaculture designer, educator,
and farmer. A community organizer and
progressive organic farmer, he has worked
intimately with front-line organizations,
nonprofits, and communities throughout
California. Ben is on the staff of the Esalen
Farm and Garden. p. 70, 75, 81, 98
Whitney Ferré is an artist, creativity
coach, and author of The Artist Within: A
Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit.
Owner of the Creative Fitness Center in
Nashville, Tenn., she teaches widely and has
been featured on CBS News and Martha
Stewart Radio. www.CreativelyFit.com.
p. 56
Lisa Firestone is a clinical psychologist
and director of research and education for
the Glendon Association. Dr. Firestone is a
conference facilitator and coauthor of
Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice and
Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships.
p. 16
William Foote is a psychologist in private practice for more than 30 years. He has
been doing transpersonal work during most
of his career and has co-taught courses at the
American Psychiatric Association meetings
for many years. p. 56
Thomas Michael Fortel is a longtime
yoga practitioner/teacher, influenced by the
Iyengar, Ashtanga, and Anusara styles of
Hatha yoga, and drawing from his devotional experience in Bhakti yoga. He travels
widely, sharing his love for yoga. p. 12, 39,
53, 65
Benjamin Fox is a licensed massage
therapist, astrologer, and avid gardener with
more than twenty years of experience in the
fields of holistic medicine and organizational
administration. He is a cofounder of
the Alchemical Healing Mentorship.
benjamin@anewpossibility.com. p. 50
Margot Fraser founded Birkenstock
USA in 1966. Her focused and innovative
management style turned Birkenstock USA
into a company with over $100 million in
annual revenues. She coauthored Dealing
with the Tough Stuff in 2009, with Lisa
Lorimer. p. 7, 42
Jerome Front teaches at Pepperdine
University and across the US, and has written about mindfulness, contemplative living, and mindful approaches to relationships. He leads retreats and clinical and corporate trainings, and is an LMFT in private
practice. p. 73
G
Jayson Fann has twenty years of experi-
Erin Gafill is a painter who teaches inter-
ence as a musician, performer, visual artist,
musical director and multi-cultural arts
education consultant. The former director of
the Esalen Arts Center, he has taught at
California State University, Monterey Bay,
SF State, and other schools. p. 17, 18, 32
nationally and cofounded the Big Sur Arts
Initiative. She was artist-in-residence at the
Children’s International Art Museum in
Hamada, Japan. In 2009, she was named
Champion of the Arts by the Arts Council
for Monterey. p. 63
Robin Fann-Costanzo has a lifelong
Jim Gallas, a Shiatsu teacher for more
background in dance and movement. An
Esalen® Massage practitioner, CranioSacral
practitioner, and certified yoga instructor,
she has taught and assisted Esalen Massage
trainings, yoga retreats, and Upledger
Institute trainings. p. 72
than 15 years, has led workshops in
California and internationally. Creator of
the DVD Zen Thai Table Shiatsu: Deep
and Effective Body Work with Ease, Jim
also teaches Reiki, anatomy, yoga, and chi
kung. p. 78, 98
Warren Farrell is author of the best-sell-
Alan Vann Gardner, Ed.D., has stud-
ers Why Men Are The Way They Are
and The Myth of Male Power. His
Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t
Say was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. He has appeared on over 1,000 TV
shows worldwide. p. 76
ied and taught aikido for more than 30
years and has a fourth degree black belt. He
is a school principal, senior teacher at Two
Rock Aikido Dojo, Samurai Game facilitator, and adjunct faculty member at the
University of San Francisco. p. 42
Dennis Gates, an integrative medicine
physician in Chicago, practiced orthopedic
surgery for 27 years. He teaches optimum
health and the integration of holistic and
standard medical care. A graduate fellow of
Andrew Weil, he has conducted workshops
for patients as well as medical staffs. p. 55
Cornelia Gerken integrates a spectrum
of psychosomatic and healing approaches.
With her husband Siegmar, she cofounded
and codirects the International Institute of
Core Evolution. She is the founder of
CoreSoma. p. 47, 94
Siegmar Gerken, PhD, has pioneered
body-oriented and heart-centered therapy
and humanistic psychology since 1971. He is
the founder of Core Evolution® and the
Energy & Consciousness Programs™. He
teaches at SBGI, conducts mindfulnessbased trainings and specialized management and coaching seminars and teaches
worldwide. p. 47, 94
Christopher Germer is a clinical psychologist in private practice, a clinical
instructor in psychology at Harvard
Medical School, co-editor of Mindfulness
and Psychotherapy, and author of The
Mindful Path to Self-Compassion. He
leads workshops internationally on mindfulness and self-compassion. www.MindfulSelfCompassion.org p. 32
Lance Giroux is a West Point graduate
and founder of Allied Ronin Leadership
Training & Consulting. Since 1975 he has
specialized in the field of leadership, team
effectiveness, and human potential education.
In 2000 George Leonard designated him as
his sole representative to train and certify
Samurai Game® facilitators worldwide. p. 42
Mariah Fenton Gladis, founder/direc-
tor of the Pennsylvania Gestalt Center for
Psychotherapy and Training for over three
decades, leads workshops and trainings
around the US and in Europe. She is recognized for the sensitive and creative way she
practices the art of Gestalt. p. 34, 36
Lisa Goettel is a singer, composer, and
voice coach with more than 30 years of
musical experience. She has taught group
singing classes regularly at Esalen since
2007 and leads workshops throughout the
US. p. 33
Aviva Gold, painter, author, and therapist, has been leading Painting From The
Source worldwide for more than 25 years, as
well as training others to use this method.
She believes authentic soul-touching art
comes from a divine place within and the
ritual of creating such art is central to
healing. p. 37
Mary Goldenson is a clinical psychologist, chiropractor, and certified Radix
teacher in Los Angeles. She has a private
practice specializing in relationship therapy
and transitions, and leads mediation trainings and workshops around the country.
p. 18, 30, 76, 88
Gwen Gordon designed and built
Muppets for “Sesame Street.” She teaches at
Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Coaches
Training Institute, Institute for
Transpersonal Psychology, and Holy Names
University. Her articles have been published
by many journals. p. 67
Harriet Goslins originated Cortical
Field Reeducation. A Feldenkrais practitioner and Integrated Awareness teacher, her
background is in psychosynthesis, applied
kinesiology, muscle energy, craniosacral
work, and social anthropology. She has been
teaching at Esalen for 24 consecutive years.
p. 68
Jnana Gowan, is the director of
Powerhouse Education, a company dedicated to health and wellbeing. A teacher since
1990, she specializes in yoga for women in
transitional times, and conducts yoga, corporate stress reduction, and wellness retreats.
www.powerhed.com. p. 37, 87
Akuyoe Graham, actor and writer, has
coaxed and inspired profound stories out of
wounded and violent youth in the penal system. She has been seen in numerous television shows and movies, and tours nationally
with her critically-acclaimed one-woman
show, “Spirit Awakening,” which is in
development for a feature film with producer Robert Chartoff. p. 58
Lynda Greenberg has been practicing
art for thirty years and holds a Masters of
Fine Arts degree. She teaches at Antelope
Valley and Harbor colleges, among others.
She was trained by Dr. Betty Edwards,
author of Drawing on the Right Side of
the Brain. p. 15
Chris Griffin is a Master ChiRunning/
ChiWalking Instructor, mentoring with the
founder of ChiRunning/ChiWalking,
Danny Dreyer. Chris lives in Mill Valley,
Calif., and travels throughout the US and
Canada teaching this technique. p. 53
Michael Griffith is a marriage and
family therapist in San Francisco who specializes in working with teenagers, men,
couples, and families. He is also a dentist
who specializes in treating traumatized
patients, as well as a figurative painter. p. 30
Mingtong Gu is an internationally-recognized teacher and healer who received his
training from a variety of Grandmasters in
China and at the world's largest Qigong
hospital. www.chicenter.com. p. 9, 72
James Guay is a psychotherapist
(licensed marriage and family therapist)
and certified personal trainer in private
practice since 1999. He specializes in body
image confidence with gay men. p. 50
H
Patrice Hamilton has worked in the
fields of education and counseling for more
than 20 years. She holds an MEd in counseling, is a certified Cortical Field
Reeducation practitioner and teacher, a certified Hakomi Practitioner (The Refined
Method), and is trained in Esalen Massage.
p. 22, 82, 97
Lene Handberg (Semrig Thablam
Rabjam), directs the Tarab Institute in
Denmark, which instructs students in a complete four-year program of the mystical teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. She teaches internationally. www.tarab-institute.org. p. 70
103
HANNS BECKER
Eleanor Criswell Hanna, director of the
Novato Institute for Somatic Research and
Training and an emeritus professor of psychology at Sonoma State University, is editor of
Somatics, and author of How Yoga Works
and Biofeedback and Somatics. p. 90
Mike Hannigan is president and
cofounder of Give Something Back,
California’s largest independent business-tobusiness office supplier. Founded in 1991,
GSB donates its profits to community organizations. p. 7, 42
Kai Harper, age 19, is a native Big Sur
local, a graduate of Esalen’s Gazebo School,
and currently attends UC Santa Barbara.
He has spent his entire life training his
father, Steven Harper, in the ways of innovative parenting and hiking. p. 87
Kenneth Harper is the father of Steven
and grandfather of Kai and Kes. His rich,
diverse life has taken him from Africa to
public service in Washington D.C. to
administration of universities. He teaches
dance, tai chi, and counseling in Arizona.
p. 87
Kes Harper, age 16, is a native Big Sur
local, a graduate of Esalen’s Gazebo School,
and currently attends Carmel High School.
He has spent his entire life training his
father, Steven Harper, in the ways of innovative parenting and hiking. p. 87
104
Steven Harper is a wilderness guide,
author, artist, and Big Sur resident. He has
led both traditional and experimental
wilderness expeditions internationally for
more than 30 years. He has an MA in psychology and his work focuses on wild nature
as a vehicle for awakening. p. 10, 61, 67, 72,
87
Geneen Marie Haugen is a writer
and guide to the mysteries of Earth and psyche. Her work appears in many nature
anthologies, including American Nature
Writing and Going Alone: Women’s
Adventures in the Wild. She is a doctoral
student in Philosophy, Cosmology, and
Consciousness at CIIS. p. 29
Jack Healey, former executive director of
Amnesty International, heads the Human
Rights Action Center. A leader in the
human rights movement for more than 25
years, he helped move the topic of human
rights from closed-door diplomatic negotiations to widespread awareness and direct citizen action. p. 36
Michele Hébert is a yoga and medita-
tion teacher, natural nutritionist, and
author of The Tenth Door: An
Adventure Through the Jungles of
Enlightenment. Yogiraj Walt Baptiste
gave her the title Raja Yoga Guide, and she
has received initiation from Swami Veda
Bharati and H.H. The Dalai Lama. p. 72
Clifford Henderson is cofounder of the
Fun Institute in Santa Cruz, Calif., an
enterprise that brings adult improv to the
community and the workplace. She performs
with the improv troupes Loose Cannon
Theater and Crash Test. Her plays have
been produced in the Bay Area and her
novels include The Middle of Somewhere,
Spanking New, and Maye’s Request.
p. 86
Kim Hermanson teaches at Holy
Names University, Meridian University,
and Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her books
include Getting Messy: A Guide to
Taking Risks and Opening the
Imagination and Sky’s the Limit. She
has coauthored many articles on learning
and creativity. www.aestheticspace.com.
p. 37
Cari Hernandez is an artist and photographer who was born and raised in northern California. Cari teaches, lectures, and
shows her work nationally, is a founding
board member of International Encaustic
Artists (IEA), and was the creator and director of IEA’s annual retreat and conference.
p. 54
Paul Heussenstamm comes from a
family immersed in art and spirituality. At
35, he began painting in earnest after a single art class expanded into a consuming passion, a new profession, and a new perspective on life. He understands mandalas as
psychic maps and symbols of wholeness. p. 76
John Hiatt, clinical professor of psychiatry
in the UCSF School of Medicine, also directs
General Outpatient Services at the San
Francisco VA Medical Center. He founded
the Transpersonal Care Program at the VA,
which offers spiritually-based treatment. He
recently opened a private practice. p. 56
Sha Sha Higby is nationally known for
her evocative and haunting performances
and for the exquisite and ephemeral body
sculpture she creates to move within. She
has performed internationally and studied
extensively in Indonesia and Japan.
www.shashahigby.com. p. 89
Constance G. Hills, PhD, is a licensed
psychologist who has worked in the field of
mental health for more than 20 years. Her
commitment to self-care is anchored in
Buddhist healing practices taught to her by
the venerable Dr. Rina Sircar. She practices
psychotherapy and consulting in San
Francisco, Calif. www.conniehillsphd.com.
p. 30
Lee Holden is a senior teacher for
Mantak Chia, the Taoist master, and has
edited several best-selling books on Taoist
sexuality. He is a leading Chi Kung instructor, and creator of Seven Minutes of Magic,
the DVD series aired on PBS, and the book.
p. 65
Johanna Holloman is a German-born
clinical psychologist, Diamond Approach®
teacher, and certified Esalen® Massage and
Deep Bodywork instructor, teaching at
Esalen and internationally. She is a yoga
teacher (E-RYT 500) and has created the
Esalen In-house Yoga training program.
p. 16, 17, 52, 54, 95
Perry Holloman has been a teacher and
practitioner of Esalen® Massage, Deep
Bodywork, and body-oriented approaches to
Gestalt therapy for more than 20 years. He
teaches in the US, Asia, and Europe, and
makes his home in Big Sur, Calif. p. 16, 52,
54
I
K
Felix “Pupy” Insua, born and raised in
Athena Katsaros is a leadership and
Cuba (a featured performer with Grupo
Folklorico Nacional de Cuba), moved to
New York in 1995 to spread the healing
experience of Afro-Cuban music, dance, and
spirituality. He is a priest and healer in the
Cuban Lukumi religion. p. 55
life coach, and a principal of IdeaTribe. She
is a faculty member at the Coaches Training
Institute. As an executive council member of
Bpeace, Athena works with women leaders
in Afghanistan and Rwanda. p. 7, 47
Rik Isensee practices mindfulness-based
somatic psychotherapy in San Francisco. He
is the author of Shift Your Mood:
Unleash Your Life! Your Pathway to
Inner Happiness. p. 50
Lucia Rose Horan was born and raised
in the Esalen community. She carries on her
family’s lineage through teaching the
5Rhythms ecstatic dance practice and Esalen
Massage. Lucia shares her passion and
inspiration as both an embodied practitioner and teacher. p. 63, 97
Peggy Horan has been practicing and
teaching massage at Esalen for more than
35 years. She has also been involved in
childbirth education and has practiced midwifery in Big Sur for 15 years. Peggy is the
author of the book Connecting Through
Touch. p. 15, 48
Mitch Horowitz is a writer and speaker
on the history and impact of alternative
spirituality, and the editor-in-chief of
Tarcher/Penguin. He is the author of
Occult America, and he has written for
U.S. News & World Report, The
Washington Post, Parabola, and
BoingBoing. www.MitchHorowitz.com.
p. 45
J
Roger Jahnke has practiced Chinese
medicine clinically for more than 30 years.
He has traveled to China eight times and is
the director of the Institute for Integral
Qigong and Tai Chi. His books include The
Healer Within and The Healing
Promise of Qi. p. 31, 88
Bill James is one of Esalen’s most frequent visitors, attending workshops in
diverse fields, such as psychology, writing,
singing, hypnosis, self awakening, and massage. An active donor to Esalen since the 80s,
Bill is a member of Esalen’s Board of
Trustees. p. 40
Michael Jang has been a senior student
of Benjamin Lo since 1976, and organized
his first workshop in 1977. An accomplished
photographer with work in the SFMOMA,
Michael has been documenting t’ai chi
worldwide with film, video, and stills. p. 13
Roger Housden is the author of 15
books on a variety of spiritual and cultural
themes, including the best-selling Ten
Poems series, the anthology Risking
Everything: 110 Poems of Love and
Revelation, and How Rembrandt
Reveals Your Beautiful, Imperfect Self.
p. 83
Eli Jaxon-Bear teaches and leads retreats
worldwide through The Leela Foundation, a
nonprofit organization dedicated to world
peace and freedom through universal selfrealization. His books include The
Enneagram of Liberation: From Fixation
to Freedom and Sudden Awakening—
Into Direct Realization. p. 58
Chungliang Al Huang teaches Tai Ji
Johnsmith has been writing heartfelt
philosophy, East/West synthesis, and the art
of movement meditation. He is the founderpresident of the Living Tao Foundation and
director of Lan Ting Institute in the Sacred
Mountains of China. p. 46, 49
songs for more than 30 years. He’s won
national awards and contests, was a staff
songwriter in Nashville, and has recorded 6
CDs. He’s taught songwriting workshops
nationwide, and has been featured on
NPR’s “New Dimensions.” p. 65
Cheri Huber is the author of 19 books.
She founded the Palo Alto Zen Center, the
Zen Monastery Peace Center, and is founder
and director of Living Compassion, a nonprofit organization dedicated to peace and
service. p. 7, 82
Pete Huff is an avid sustainable agricul-
ture practitioner, educator, and advocate.
Currently serving as the Garden Supervisor
for the Esalen Farm and Garden, Pete is also
actively engaged in permaculture design,
biodynamic agriculture, community organizing, social engagement, and systems
thinking in relation to personal and social
transformation. p. 75
Terry Hunt is a nationally-known psy-
chologist and coauthor of Emotional
Healing; Secrets to Tell, Secrets to
Keep, and Addiction as Transformation.
p. 38
Rae Johnson, PhD, RSMT, RSW, is chair
of the Somatic Psychology department at the
Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, former director of the Body Psychotherapy program in the
Somatic Counseling Psychology Department at
Naropa University, and founding coordinator
of the Student Crisis Response programs at the
University of Toronto. p. 71, 94
Susan Jouett started her body work and
healing practice in 1987. She was exposed to
C.F.R. in 1988. In Washington state, she
specialized in deep tissue and clinical treatments. She completed the C.F.R. program in
2000. She continues to teach and expand her
knowledge and skills. p. 68
Andrea Juhan balances the catalytic
nature of the 5Rhythms with a finely tuned
therapeutic instinct. Her teaching style is
both lively and challenging, creating a field
where participants are inspired and supported to pursue their own growth. p. 22, 23
Sunnie Kaufmann-Paulman has created and implemented children’s programming for more than 15 years. She is community development director with Girl Scouts of
Northern California, and serves on the board
of directors for the Deaf Counseling, Advocacy,
and Referral Agency of California. p. 10, 87
Sam Keen is the author of numerous
books, including The Passionate Life,
Faces of the Enemy, Hymns to an
Unknown God, and Learning to Fly.
p. 64
Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, director of Greater Good
Science Center, and author of Born to Be
Good and The Compassionate Instinct,
among others. His work has appeared in
The New York Times Magazine, The
London Times, and Utne Reader. p. 8, 56
Gillian Kendall is a high-school dropout
with a PhD. Her teaching incorporates
influences from Jung, co-counseling,
Christianity, Buddhism, gentle feminism,
and gentle movement. She teaches in a
spirit of fun and trust. Her books include
Mr. Ding’s Chicken Feet and How I
Became a Human Being. www.gilliankendall.net. p. 22
Jim Kepner is a psychologist and the
author of Body Process and Healing
Tasks. He teaches internationally on the
application of Gestalt Body Process
Psychotherapy to healing in trauma, stress,
and illness. Jim is the co-originator of
Nervous System Energy Work. p. 38
Jerry Kermode is a woodturning artist
Daphne Rose Kingma is the best-sell-
ing author of ten books on love and relationships. Her most recent book, The Ten
Things to Do When Your Life Falls
Apart: An Emotional and Spiritual
Handbook, is a heartfelt guide to living
through very hard times. www.daphnekingma.com. p. 27
Alan Kishbaugh has been leading cou-
ples seminars with his wife Stella Resnick
for more than 25 years. He is a writer with
many years of experience in book publishing, urban planning, and parkland and
open space preservation. p. 26
Bessel van der Kolk is a clinical psy-
chiatrist and neuroscientist whose Trauma
Center incorporates a yoga studio, theater
program, and neurofeedback laboratory. He
was president of the International Society
for Traumatic Stress Studies and professor of
psychiatry at Boston University School of
Medicine. p. 19, 21
Pamela Kramer, a senior ITP teacher and
student of George Leonard and Michael
Murphy, creates a supportive community setting to grow, learn, and enjoy. She has co-led
the longest-running ITP group in the country.
Pam is the president of ITP International. p. 66
Sybil Krauter teaches Integrated
Awareness® and Cortical Field Reeducation®
internationally. Her background is in education, clinical hypnosis, and neurolinguistic
programming. Currently her focus is on how
we create reality. p. 48, 68
Jill Kuykendall is a physical therapist
and transpersonal medical practitioner who
worked in the standard Western medical
paradigm for 25 years. She is in private
practice specializing in soul retrieval, and is
the coauthor (with Hank Wesselman) of
Spirit Medicine. p. 51, 88
L
and teacher in Sebastopol, Calif. He is
known as much for his sense of humor and
friendly manner as for his ability with the
chisel. He helps people understand the subtle
nuances of cutting wood without fear or
trepidation. p. 50
Brian LaForgia has been practicing
Chinese Medicine for the past 30 years. In
1992, he met Leon Hammer and studied Dr.
John Shen’s pulse system intensively with
him. Since 1995 Brian has been teaching
Pulse Diagnosis internationally. p. 61
Brent Kessel is president and cofounder
of Abacus Wealth Partners, which has been
named one of the top 250 wealth management firms in the US by Bloomberg Wealth
Manager. Brent has dedicated himself to
yoga since 1989 and is the author of It’s
Not About the Money. p. 64
Marla Leigh is a Los Angeles-based professional percussionist, flautist, composer,
and educator who specializes in the frame
drum. She also plays Indian tabla, kangjira,
African dgembe, djun djun, and other
instruments. She has taught drumming
workshops internationally and leads the
world music ensemble Rhythmjuju.
www.marlaleigh.com. p. 10, 66
Jeffrey Kiehl is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Boulder, Colorado, and a
member of the Inter-Regional Society of
Jungian Analysts and the International
Association of Analytical Psychology. He
holds a PhD in climate sciences and works
on global environmental issues. p. 80
Ellen Kindl began Harriet Goslins’
Cortical Field Re-education as an attempt to
control chronic pain after a 21-hour surgery
to fuse 14 vertebra. It worked, she was certified as a teacher in 2000, and has taught at
Esalen and other locations nationally since
then. p. 48
Marc Lesser is CEO of ZBA Associates,
an executive coaching and consulting company. Marc is a Zen teacher, has an MBA,
and is author of LESS: Accomplishing
More By Doing Less. p. 7, 82
Jaquelin Levin is a writer, biocentric
activist, didactic facilitator of Biodanza®
Vital Development, and director of the LA
School of Biodanza® Vital Development.
She trained in psychology, performing arts,
and was also initiated into the medicine way.
Jaquelin teaches in the US and internationally. www.biodanza-dancesoflife.com
p. 74, 99
105
Peter Levine, PhD, has a background
in medical biophysics, psychophysiology,
and psychology. He developed Somatic
Experiencing®, founded the Foundation for
Human Enrichment, and teaches internationally. Among his books are Waking the
Tiger, Healing Trauma (book/CD), and,
with Maggie Kline, Trauma Through a
Child’s Eyes and Trauma-Proofing Your
Kids. p. 21
Gregg Levoy, author of Callings:
Finding and Following an Authentic
Life and This Business of Writing, is a
former adjunct professor of journalism at the
University of New Mexico who teaches
widely on the subject of callings. p. 53
Dennis Lewis, a student of the Gurdjieff
Work, Taoism, and Advaita, teaches the
transformative power of presence through
breathing, qigong, meditation, and selfinquiry. He is the author of Breathe Into
Being; Free Your Breath, Free Your Life;
and The Tao of Natural Breathing.
www.dennislewis.org. p. 41
Benjamin Lo has been teaching Professor
Cheng Man Ching’s simplified method of
t’ai chi chuan since 1952. He is based in San
Francisco and has conducted workshops
throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. p. 13
Elisa Lodge has been teaching expressive
arts practices, movement, dance, drama,
sound healing, and bodywork for four
decades. She is the creator of Wowzacise –
Growing Young on the Ball and author
of Primal Energetics–Emotional
Intelligence in Action. p. 44
William K. Mahoney is a professor at
Davidson College in North Carolina. He
teaches courses on Hinduism, Buddhism,
Islam, and comparative religion. His books
include The Artful Universe: An
Introduction to the Vedic Religious
Imagination and, as coauthor, Meditation
Revolution: A History and Theology of
the Siddha Yoga Lineage. p. 84
Jane Malek,CMT, began studying the
Rosen Method in 1980 and trained with
Marion Rosen. She is a senior teacher of
Rosen Method Bodywork and a Rosen
Movement Training teacher. Jane has a
practice in the Monterey area of Calif.,
and she teaches internationally.
www.RosenWest.org. p. 50
Karen Malik has been a facilitator of
Monroe Institute programs since 1977, and
was instrumental in the development of
the Institute and its programs. She is a
California-licensed MFT specializing in
a transpersonal approach. p. 69
Vanda Marlow left a business career in
her native London to find her vocation.
Now, as a leadership and relationship coach,
she inspires people to the fearless pursuit of
joy-filled, juicy lives. p. 7, 66
Dean Marson teaches Esalen Massage
and Ocean Yoga. He integrates meditation,
movement, and bodywork practices to assist
people in enlivening their bodies and their
lives. He has led workshops at Esalen and
internationally for over 20 years. p. 28, 93
Vinn Martí is a movement artist, teacher,
and spiritual friend, living in Portland, Ore.
He teaches Soul Motion internationally,
and is a certified Chaplain and Prayer
Practitioner through the New Thought
Alliance of Churches. p. 33, 34, 88
Endowed Professor in Cultural Psychiatry
at UC Davis. Since 1987 he has co-led 24
seminars at Esalen exploring film and the
transpersonal. p. 54
Diana Marto is an international environmental performance artist, visual artist,
activist, and teacher. She has performed and
exhibited in Asia, Africa, the Middle East,
Europe, and North America. She teaches
papermaking as a spiritual practice.
www.dianamarto.com. p. 78
Nancy Lunney-Wheeler, formerly a
Charlea Massion is a family physician
vocal coach and accompanist to many well
known actors and performers, is the originator of Singing Gestalt, which utilizes lyrics
and songs as a means of self-expression, contact, and communication. After almost 30
years as director of programming at Esalen,
she is now senior advisor, programs and
communication. p. 14
and women’s health specialist. She teaches
in the Division of Family and Community
Medicine at Stanford University Medical
Center and is on the advisory board of the
American College of Women’s Health
Physicians. p. 47
Francis G. Lu is the Luke & Grace Kim
Fred Luskin teaches and researches the
psychosocial and spiritual factors that lead to
health and disease at Stanford University. He
is director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project
and has written two bestsellers: Forgive for
Good and Forgive for Love. p. 13
M
Miranda Macpherson is known for
her capacity to guide people into direct experience of the sacred. Founder of the Interfaith
Seminary in London, and a primary teacher
at the Findhorn Foundation, Miranda
cofounded the Feminine Wisdom School
with Lama Palden and Sherry Anderson.
www.awakeningwithmiranda.com and
www.femininewisdomschool.com. p. 38
106
Sarah Mata is a certified yoga teacher
trained in the traditions of Krishnamacharya.
Her work ranges from the vigorous flow for
the very fit to the user-friendly application of
yoga for people with heart disease and musculoskeletal injuries. p. 32
Nora Matten is a member of the Esalen
Massage crew and an Esalen Massage
teacher. As part of the Esalen Movement
staff she teaches dance and yoga. Her work
draws on Forrest yoga, Soul Motion, vipassana meditation, Gestalt Awareness
Practice, and the Diamond Approach,
among others. p. 17, 48
Edward W. Maupin, a psychologist
who was an Esalen scholar-in-residence
from 1966 to 1970, has practiced Rolfing
since 1968, when he was trained by Dr. Ida
Rolf. His early research in Zen Buddhism
strongly influenced his approach to the Rolf
Method. p. 26
HANNS BECKER
Noah Levine author of Dharma Punx
and Against The Stream, is a Buddhist
teacher and counselor, trained by Jack
Kornfield of Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
He is the founding teacher of Against the
Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. p. 99
Camille Maurine coauthored
Meditation 24/7 and Meditation
Secrets for Women. A dancer and performing artist who has taught movement,
meditation, and expression since 1975,
Camille is the creator of kinAesthetics and
the transformational Moving Theater
process. p. 81
Ivy Mayer is a high school counselor,
Coming of Age leader, yoga and dance practitioner, marriage/family therapist intern,
and an original “child of Esalen” who loves
to share Esalen with children. p. 10, 53, 60,
77
Jennifer McChristian is an awardwinning painter who has also worked as an
animation artist in Los Angeles and served
in the military service for five years. She
studied with Robert Blue, Karl Dempwolf,
Scott Burdick, and Steve Huston. p. 80
Jim McCormick trained with Zero
Balancing founder, Dr. Fritz Smith. He is
chairman of the board of directors and the
on the faculty of the Zero Balancing Health
Association. He is co-president of Cambridge
Health Associates, where he practices Zero
Balancing and traditional acupuncture.
p. 69
Liam McDermott was a chef in
the Esalen kitchen after studying at the
California Culinary Academy, which followed earning his B.A. in Literature from
Stanford University. Now a massage therapist, he is actively involved in nourishing
the body on many levels. p. 11, 13, 77, 86
Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist and writer who frequently writes
about global warming and alternative energy
and advocates for more localized economies.
His books include The End of Nature, The
Age of Missing Information, and Deep
Economy, among others. www.billmckibben.com. p. 8, 56
Deborah Anne Medow, longtime
Esalen workshop leader, yoga instructor,
and bodywork practitioner, teaches yoga,
massage, creative movement, awareness
practices, and related healing disciplines
throughout the US, Europe, and Japan.
She is also a certified nutrition educator,
Zumba® dance instructor, and manager
of the Esalen Healing Arts Department.
p. 25, 28
Jeff Mendelsohn founded New York
Recycled Paper in 1991, and New Leaf
Paper in 1998. He has focused his career on
building a highly successful green business
and driving a fundamental shift toward
sustainability in the paper industry. p. 7, 42
Stephen Mercurio is a teacher at
Esalen’s Gazebo Park School. He has
worked as an early childhood and outdoor
educator for the City of Monterey and
Monterey Peninsula Unified School District
for 10 years. p. 10, 66
Linda Trichter Metcalf, author and
educator, created the practice of Proprioceptive Writing (PW) in the mid-1970s.
Founder of the PW Center, currently located
in the Bay Area of California, she teaches,
conducts PW therapy, and leads the PW
Teacher Certification Program. p. 51
Susan Mickel has been meditating since
1990, first in the Christian tradition, then
in the Burmese mindfulness tradition, and
now in the pointing-out style of Tibetan
Mahamudra. Her teachers include Daniel
Brown and Rahob Tulku, Thupten Kalsang
Rinpoche. She has taught meditation
retreats since 1998. p. 57
Emmett Miller is widely recognized as a
founder of mind/body medicine and as the
inventor of the guided-imagery audiocassette/
CD. He is the author of Deep Healing and
has recorded more than 50 deep-relaxation
meditations and talks. p. 24
Debbie Mills, senior student of Srivatsa
Ramaswami, yoga teacher, and bodyworker,
has studied and taught yoga for almost 20
years, and has led nearly 30 yoga treks to the
Himalayas. p. 32
Oscar Miro-Quesada is a Peruvian
kamasqa curandero, fellow in ethnopsychology with the Organization of American
States (OAS), founder of the Heart of the
Healer (THOTH) Foundation, UN Invited
Observer to the Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues, and originator the
Pachakuti Mesa Tradition of cross-cultural
shamanism. www.mesaworks.com p. 74
Anneli Molin-Skelton is living her
dream of inspiring people to discover the forgotten language of their souls by embracing
their sacredness and truth in movement.
She is a cofounder of the movement sanctuary Spiritweaves. p. 41
Michael Molin-Skelton listens to
prayers of the wind and hears music.
Michael reaches through dance rather than
teaches to dance. “Dance is not something
I do, it’s simply who I am.” p. 41
Matthew Montfort, leader of the
internationally-acclaimed world fusion
music ensemble Ancient Future, is a bandleader, composer, and multi-instrumentalist
(scalloped fretboard guitar, electric guitar,
flamenco guitar, mandolin, charango, sitar,
and gamelan). He has performed worldwide. www.ancient-future.com. p. 42
Jean Morrison has worked in the areas
of health, education, business, and restorative justice since 1985. She has been a
Certified Trainer with the global Center for
Nonviolent Communication since 1989,
and coproduces materials for learning
Compassionate Communication. p. 81, 99
Beverly Kitaen Morse is a marriage
and family therapist in private practice in
Santa Monica, Calif., and executive director
of the Rosenberg-Kitaen Integrative Body
Psychotherapy Central Institute and the 12
IBP International Institutes. She is coauthor of The Intimate Couple. p. 41
Nan Moss is a shamanic practitioner
and teacher, serving on the faculty of the
Foundation for Shamanic Studies for over
15 years. She is author of Weather
Shamanism: Harmonizing Our
Connection with the Elements and
CloudDancing: Wisdom from the Sky.
p. 32
Robert Moss, the pioneer of Active
Dreaming, works with individuals and
groups throughout the world, teaching innovative techniques to open personal paths to
creativity and healing and find life’s bigger
story. He is a former foreign correspondent
and history professor. p. 25
Eric Moya, MFCT, CST-D, is a career
manual therapist, instructor for the
Upledger Institute, and mental health therapist specializing in mind/body awareness
and growth. Eric is also director of education
at the Esalen Institute where he oversees
staff and student development. p. 75, 94, 97
Charles Muir, a professional yoga
instructor for 35 years, is director of the
Source School of Tantra Yoga in Hawaii
and California. He is coauthor of Tantra:
The Art of Conscious Loving. His work
was featured in the Hollywood movies Bliss
and The Best Ever. p. 58
N
Mehrad Nazari is a master teacher of
the Walt Baptiste Method of Raja Yoga. Dr.
Nazari received initiation from Swami
Veda Bharati, Kyozan Joshu Roshi, and
H.H. The Dalai Lama. As an industrial
psychologist he applies the ancient spiritual
practices to the corporate world. p. 72
Kristin Neff, PhD, is an associate professor of human development at the University
of Texas at Austin. She is a pioneering
researcher into the psychological health benefits of self-compassion. She is also the
author of Self-Compassion. p. 32
Deb Nelson is executive director of Social
Venture Network, based in San Francisco.
Founded in 1987, SVN is an association
that supports, connects, and inspires responsible business leaders, social entrepreneurs,
and investors. p. 7, 42
Michael Newman is an attorney-medi-
ator, surfer, and lifelong resident of the Big
Sur coast. He has an MA in psychology and
promotes the integration of wilderness into
contemporary life. p. 61, 72
Mark Nicolson has co-created three projects for transformative learning in individuals, teams, and organizations: Ventana
Group, LeadershipDNA, and the Tutu Peace
Process. Mark’s work also focuses on life
transitions. He is a graduate of the Esalen
Extended Student program, Oxford, and
Stanford. p. 13, 29
Wesley “Scoop” Nisker is a Buddhist
meditation teacher, author, radio commentator, and performer. His best-selling books
include Essential Crazy Wisdom, The Big
Bang, The Buddha, and the Baby Boom,
and Buddha’s Nature. He teaches at the
Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre,
Calif., and is founder and co-editor of the
Theravada Buddhist journal Inquiring
Mind. p. 18, 69
Philip Novotny practices somatic psy-
chology as it relates to free-form movement,
and teaches Yum ecstatic movement. His
primary teachers are Vinn Martí, Gabrielle
Roth, Kathy Altman, Zuza Engler, Karl
Frost, and Nita Little. p. 46
O
Gina Ogden, PhD, LMFT, is a sex ther-
apist, researcher, and workshop leader. She
conducted the only nationwide survey on
sexuality and spirituality (ISIS). Her latest
books are Women Who Love Sex, The
Heart and Soul of Sex, and The Return
of Desire. www.GinaOgden.com. p. 31,
33
Pat Ogden, PhD, is founder and director
of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute,
specializing in training psychotherapists in
somatic/cognitive approaches for the treatment of trauma, developmental, and attachment issues. She is the first author of
Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor
Approach to Psychotherapy. p. 26, 94
Jennie Oppenheimer’s work, a playful exploration of pattern, texture, and color
inspired by fabrics, weathered architecture,
and colors found in cultures around the
world, has been featured in cookbooks and
magazines, as gift cards and papers, and as
backdrops for retail environments. p. 67
Brita Ostrom, a licensed MFT, has led
massage and other workshops at Esalen for
more than 20 years. She is a founding member of the Esalen Massage School, trained in
Gestalt awareness work and participated in
Esalen’s two-year somatics education project.
p. 28, 93
P
Ji Hyang Padma serves as director of
spirituality and education programs at
Wellesley College. She also teaches at UCLA
and the Omega Institute. Ji Hyang has been
practicing and teaching Zen since 1990,
which she integrates with counseling psychology. p. 7, 32
Laurie Lioness Parizek graduated
from the Montreal General Hospital School
of Nursing, McGill University. She studied
and teaches hands-on interactive and energy healing and is a longtime teacher of
Esalen bodywork. p. 21, 88
Laurel Parnell is an internationally recognized psychologist, author, consultant, and
EMDR trainer who has trained thousands
of clinicians in the US and abroad. The
author of four books on EMDR, she maintains a private practice in San Rafael, Calif.
p. 55
Carole Pertofsky, MEd, coteaches The
Pursuit of Happiness and Health at
Stanford and directs Stanford’s Wellness
and Health Promotion Services. Her coaching practice focuses on cultivating and sustaining fulfilling emotional lives. She
appeared in the award-winning documentary, “Let’s Face It: Women Explore Our
Aging Faces.” p. 14
Char Pias, a member of the Esalen massage staff since 1980, teaches internationally,
focusing on bodywork’s energetic, emotional,
and spiritual aspect. She is a Reiki Master/
Teacher, a Circle of Life facilitator/coach,
and a licensed graduate of The Center for
Spiritual Healing. p. 16, 97
Bill Plotkin, founder of Colorado’s
Animas Valley Institute, is a depth psychologist, wilderness-based soul guide, and agent
for cultural change. Author of Soulcraft
and Nature and the Human Soul, he has
guided thousands of people through initiatory passages in the underworld of soul. p. 56
David Presti is a neuroscientist at the
University of California in Berkeley. His
areas of expertise include the chemistry of
the human nervous system, the effects of
drugs on the brain and mind, and the scientific study of mind and consciousness. p. 83
Christine Stewart Price is a teacher
and ongoing student of Gestalt Awareness
Practice and other approaches to developing
awareness. p. 23, 43, 51, 77
Steven Pritzker is a professor of psychol-
ogy, writer, creativity coach, and director of
Creativity Studies at Saybrook University,
in San Francisco. He co-edits The
Encyclopedia of Creativity and wrote
for network television. p. 46
George Protos has studied the “point-
ing-out” style of meditation with Daniel
Brown since 1995. He leads weeklong
retreats and an ongoing meditation study
group in Marin County, Calif., and created
an online user support group for meditators.
p. 57
R
Gustavo Rabin is a psychologist and an
organizational consultant based in Silicon
Valley, Calif. He specializes in improving
leadership skills of individuals and the effectiveness of teams and organizations.
Gustavo is also a cofounder of Skyline
Group. p. 13, 70
Charu Rachlis, born and raised in
Brazil, has been teaching yoga in San
Francisco since 1997. She teaches in a
Bhakti lineage. She has a 20-year history of
Tibetan Buddhist meditation, and is strongly influenced by Iyengar and Ashtanga
yoga. p. 39
Aminah Raheem is a transpersonal
psychologist, the originator of Soul
Lightening Acupressure, an international
teacher of body psychology, and the author of
Soul Return: Integrating Body, Psyche
and Spirit and Soul Lightning:
Awakening Soul Consciousness. p. 21
Srivatsa Ramaswami was the longeststanding student of Sri T. Krishnamacharya
outside the Master’s family. He has written
scores of articles, four books, and recorded
about 40 CDs and cassettes of Sanskrit
mantras. p. 69
Sheila Ramsey is a founding partner of
Personal Leadership Seminars, LLC. Dr.
Ramsey leads leadership development seminars for the US Department of State, the
United Nations, Daimler-Benz and the
Smithsonian Institution, among many
other organizations. p. 7, 64
Christine Ranck is coauthor of Ignite
the Genius Within. She is a trauma therapist and psychoanalyst in NYC, and a
motivational speaker on freeing creativity.
Christine is also a professional singer whose
pop vocal trio, Jukebox Jane, performs internationally. www.ChristineRanck.com.
p. 56
Ann Randolph has been described as
“revolutionary,” a “tour de force,”
“Whitmanesque,” and “hilarious” for her
award-winning solo performances. Direct
from an Off-Broadway hit (produced by
the late Anne Bancroft), Randolph teaches
and tours extensively throughout the US.
p. 12, 98
Saul David Raye has been on the facul-
ty of numerous national conferences and is a
cofounder of the Sacred Movement Center
for Yoga and Healing in Los Angeles. He
teaches yoga, bodywork, and energy healing,
and is an ordained minister and musician
who infuses his classes with healing music
and chants. p. 84
107
Stella Resnick, PhD, is a body-based
Gestalt therapist in Beverly Hills Calif. specializing in relationship and sexual
enhancement. She is the author of The
Pleasure Zone and an AASECT certified
sex therapist and clinical supervisor. p. 26
Ruth Richards, affiliated with Saybrook
University and Harvard Medical School,
has published numerous articles on creativity and edited two books, including
Everyday Creativity and New Views of
Human Nature. She is a fellow of the
American Psychological Association and
2009 winner of the Arnheim Award. p. 46
David Richo is a psychotherapist in
Santa Barbara and San Francisco. Dr.
Richo is the author of How To Be An
Adult In Relationships, The Five
Things We Cannot Change And The
Happiness We Find By Embracing
Them, and others (Shambhala/Random
House). p. 82
John Robbins is the author of Diet For
A New America, and many other books.
He is the recipient of the Rachel Carson
Award, the Albert Schweitzer
Humanitarian Award, and the Peace
Abbey’s Courage of Conscience Award. His
work has been featured on many national
shows including Oprah, Donahue, and
Geraldo. p. 59
Ocean Robbins has facilitated hundreds of workshops for leaders in more than
65 nations, and is founder of YES!, author of
The Power of Partnership, and a recipient of
the Jefferson and the Freedom’s Flame
awards. www.oceanrobbins.com. p. 39
Ken Robins was born in 1944 during a
bombing raid in London. He has been seeking the safety and healing of healthy relationships ever since. He specializes in the
healing of trauma and the promotion of
intimate relationships. He is a longtime
Esalen teacher with a private practice in
Carmel, Calif. p. 98
Lorin Roche has meditated since 1968.
He is the author of The Radiance Sutras, a
new translation of the Vijnana Bhairava
Tantra, and coauthored Meditation
Secrets for Women and Meditation
24/7. His other books include Meditation
Made Easy, Breath Taking, and Whole
Body Meditations. p. 81
Marina T. Romero is a therapist and
teacher. She is a director of Estel, a personal
growth center and school of integral studies
in Barcelona, Spain. She coauthored
Nacidos de la Tierra: Sexualidad Origen
del Ser Humano. p. 81
Kim Rosen is the author of Saved by a
Poem: The Transformative Power of
Words and numerous CDs of spoken poetry
and music. Combining her devotion to
poetry with her background as a spiritual
teacher and therapist, she gives poetry
concerts, lectures, and workshops internationally. www.kimrosen.net. p. 69
Jack Lee Rosenberg is in private
practice in Venice, Calif. Founder and clinical director of the Rosenberg-Kitaen
Integrative Body Psychotherapy Central
Institute and the 12 IBP International
Institutes, he authored Total Orgasm and
coauthored Body, Self, and Soul and The
Intimate Couple. p. 41
108
Elizabeth Rosner, novelist, poet, and
essayist, is the author of two highly
acclaimed novels, The Speed of Light and
Blue Nude. Her work has appeared in the
New York Times Magazine, Elle, and
several anthologies. She has taught writing
for 27 years. p. 29
Joanne Beaule Ruggles has been
teaching since 1975. As a Cal Poly studio
arts professor, she won the 2004
Distinguished Research Award. Since 2005,
she has received grants from the James
Irvine, Puffin, and Capelli d’ Angeli foundations. p. 40, 71, 72
Peter Russell is the author of ten books,
including The TM technique, The Global
Brain, Waking Up in Time, and From
Science to God. His work integrates
Eastern and Western understandings of the
mind, exploring their relevance to the world
today. p. 78
Gordy Ryan performed worldwide with
Babatunde Olatunji for three decades while
maintaining a career as a recording artist
and composer for films and albums, including Grammy Award winners. He teaches
on three continents. p. 90
MJ Ryan is the author of This Year I
Will…and AdaptAbility: How to Survive
Change You Didn’t Ask For, and many
other books. A member of Professional
Thinking Partners, she currently serves as an
advisor to entrepreneurs, senior level executives, and leadership teams, and leads workshops around the world. p. 91
Zoë Yayodele Ryan teaches transformational movement to people of all ages.
Trained in Shakespearean theatre, she studied dance education in London, apprenticed
with Gabrielle Roth, and has lived and
breathed African dance with Baba Olatunji
and others for more than 12 years. p. 90
Patricia Ryan Madson, an Emerita
professor from Stanford, is the founder of the
Stanford Improvisers and a certified
Constructive Living instructor. Winner of
the 1998 Dinkelspiel Award for innovation
in undergraduate education, she is author of
Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just
Show Up. p. 64
S
SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow
Kennedy) is a bestselling author and
artist of more than 15 books. She has
been teaching for more than 20 years,
and she founded Planet SARK.
www.planetsark.com. p. 8, 30
David Schiffman has taught at Esalen
for 40 years. His work combines creative elements ranging from sweet mischief to intelligent risk-taking and including ceremony,
music, movement, and inner work. He has
been a consultant to California Institute for
Integrative Studies and Saybrook Institute,
in San Francisco. p. 24, 37, 40, 83
Meir Schneider is a health educator,
pioneer therapist, author, and founder of
the San Francisco non-profit School for
Self-Healing. His publications include
The Natural Vision Improvement Kit;
Movement for Self-Healing: An
Essential Resource for Anyone Seeking
Wellness; Yoga for Your Eyes (DVD).
p. 44
Renée Schultz is co-founder of The
Mother-Daughter Project, international
speaker, and marriage and family therapist
with a specialty in sex therapy. She coauthored The Mother-Daughter Project:
How Mothers and Daughters Can Band
Together, Beat the Odds, and Thrive
Through Adolescence. p. 10, 53
Alan Schwartz, author of Life Force:
Death Force, pioneered the understanding
of energetic dynamics and its relationship to
Gestalt therapy. A student and colleague of
Laura Perls, he also studied with Lowen
and Pierrakos. He has taught the Gestalt
approach worldwide since 1970. p. 41
Richard C. Schwartz is a systemic
family therapist and an academic. Dr.
Schwartz developed the Internal Family
Systems model (IFS) and founded the
Center for Self Leadership. A featured speaker for national professional organizations,
Dr. Schwartz has published five books and
over fifty articles about IFS. p. 12
Maggie Seeley is a business consultant
to Fortune 500 companies, U.N. agencies,
and international businesses. She teaches
International Business at the University of
New Mexico and is cofounder of The
Sustain Ability Trust. p. 59
Shauna Shapiro, clinical psychologist
and associate professor at Santa Clara
University, researches mindfulness meditation and has published over 60 articles and
co-authored The Art and Science of
Mindfulness. p. 46
Paula Shaw, a professional actress and
acting teacher for more than 40 years, has
conducted workshops in expanding selfexpression, wellbeing, and creativity for
non-actors in the US, Canada, and Europe.
p. 47, 50
tionally, both independently and for the
Foundation for Shamanic Studies. He is
coordinator and a ceremonial leader of the
Esalen Sweat Lodge. p. 62
Sianna Sherman is a certified Anusara
yoga instructor who loves to weave storytelling, asana, poetry, biomechanics, therapeutics, and empowering philosophical
understanding into her teaching. She enjoys
working with all levels of students. p. 84
Maria Lucia Bittencourt Sauer has
Spencer Sherman has been regularly
Carlos Sauer teaches workshops interna-
practiced spiritual healing in Brazil and the
US since 1982. She has been a resident student and teacher at Esalen and conducts
trainings and seminars internationally.
p. 39, 41, 96
named by Worth magazine as one of the
country’s top 100 wealth advisors. He is
CEO and cofounder of Abacus Wealth
Partners, a national wealth advisory firm,
and the author of the best-selling book,
The Cure for Money Madness. p. 64
Bella Shing is an award-winning director who communicates empowering messages to diverse audiences. She has also
worked with dozens of entrepreneurs to
boost success in their businesses through
compelling Web, video, seminars, and
marketing. p. 35
Stephen Sideroff is a clinical psychologist and peak performance consultant in
Santa Monica, Calif., assistant professor
in the Department of Psychiatry and
Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA’s School
of Medicine, and director of Moonview
Sanctuary. He also founded the Stress
Strategies Center at Santa Monica Hospital.
www.ThirdWind.org. p. 16
Donna Simmons has taught movement training programs in Switzerland and
the US. She also maintains a private practice in Mill Valley, Calif, and Paris, France.
p. 46
Tobin Simon, poet and educator, has
been collaborating with Linda Trichter
Metcalf since 1977. Coauthor of Writing
the Mind Alive, he is cofounder of the PW
Center, and is a poetry teacher and writing
coach of more than 30 years. p. 51
Debra Simpson has taught yoga since
2000 and teaches art theatre at Webster
University. She brings 25 years of wellness
and movement experience to her yoga practice and teaching, which has been influenced
by Iyengar and Vinyasa traditions. p. 26
Jan Sinclair is an Esalen yoga and meditation teacher and coordinates the Esalen
Movement and Activity Program. Jan’s
work is influenced by Anusara and Vinyasa
yoga with emphasis on breath and finding
your yoga through understanding and connecting with your body. p. 96
Maria Sirois is an inspirational speaker,
author, and psychologist working where
psychology, spirituality, and mind/body
medicine intersect. Dr. Sirois weaves together story, research, poetry, and laughter to
help people toward a more vital life. p. 15
Nancee Sobonya is a grief counselor,
educator, and filmmaker who produced and
directed The Gifts of Grief. She was the
bereavement coordinator at Pathways
Hospice in Oakland, Calif., teaches at Starr
King School of Ministry, and is a minister of
the Ridhwan Foundation. Nancee has been
a member of the Glide Ensemble choir in
San Francisco since 2000. p. 62, 75
Tom Spanbauer has published four
novels: Faraway Places, The Man Who
Fell in Love with the Moon, In the City
of Shy Hunters, and Now Is the Hour.
Tom has been teaching Dangerous Writing
classes for more than 17 years and is a scheduled guest for Ira Glass’ radio show This
American Life. p. 38
Susan Spraker did not qualify for the
manager trainee program at her job in 1973
because she was female. This ignited her
search for professional and financial independence and inspired her to advise others,
especially women. Dr. Spraker is the
founder-president of Spraker Wealth
Management, Inc. p. 34
Kat Steele is a permaculture activist,
designer, and educator. Founder of the
Urban Permaculture Guild in Oakland,
Calif., she facilitates workshops on sustainability, natural building, and permaculture,
and speaks about urban eco-social design,
City Repair, and the power of placemaking.
p. 59, 70, 81
Kathy Steele, MN, CS, is clinical direc-
tor of Metropolitan Counseling Services in
Atlanta, and is a past president of the
International Society for the Study of
Trauma and Dissociation. She is in private
practice, and coauthored The Haunted
Self and Coping with Trauma-related
Dissociation. p. 26, 94
Peter Sterios is a yoga instructor and
former contributing editor for Yoga
Journal. He cofounded mBODY, a yoga
school in San Luis Obispo, Calif. His DVD,
Gravity & Grace, was selected as one of the
top 15 yoga videos of all time by Richard
Rosen of Yoga Journal. p. 43
Mark Stevens is a licensed psychologist
and director of university counseling services
at California State University, Northridge.
Former president of the APA’s Society for the
Psychological Study of Men and
Masculinity, Mark coauthored In the
Room with Men: A Casebook of
Therapeutic Change. p. 62
Janet Stone teaches yoga in San
Francisco, Calif. and leads retreats and
teaches workshops internationally, including in Bali, Mexico, Malaysia, and Costa
Rica. p. 84
Dave Stringer, an artist of the new
international kirtan movement, has been
widely profiled in Yoga Journal, Time,
Billboard, and other magazines. He creates
a modern and participatory experience that
is accessible to all. Since 2000, Stringer and
his accompanying musicians have toured
internationally. p. 19
Heather Sundberg is a former Spirit
Rock Family Program manager and teacher
who has taught meditation to youth and
families since1999. She completed the Spirit
Rock/Insight Meditation Society Teacher
Training and is mentored by Jack Kornfield.
Heather has sat 1-3 months of retreat a year
for over a decade. p. 10, 77
Carl Swanson has worked at Esalen
since 2006, where he regularly teaches
Vinyasa Flow yoga and leads kirtan as part
of the Esalen Movement Program. He practices massage as a member of the Esalen
Massage crew. p. 95
Russell Targ is a physicist and author
who pioneered the development of the laser
and laser applications, and cofounded the
Stanford Research Institute’s investigation
into psychic abilities. He teaches remote
viewing, conducts ESP research in Palo Alto,
Calif., and received a lifetime achievement
award from the Parapsychological
Association. www.espresearch.com. p. 34
Stan Tatkin, PsyD, MFT,
founder/developer of A Psychobiological
Approach To Couples Therapy™, integrates
neuroscience, infant attachment, arousal
regulation, and therapeutic enactment
applied to adult relationships. He has a
practice in Calabasas, Calif., and runs clinical study groups and training programs in
Seattle and San Francisco. www.ahealthymind.org/csg. p. 9, 71
Carol Tavris is a social psychologist, lecturer, and writer. Her books include Anger:
The Misunderstood Emotion and The
Mismeasure of Woman. She has written
for The Los Angeles Times, New York
Times, Times Literary Supplement, and
many other publications. p. 48
Jack Thomas has taught and performed
in the L.A. area for 25 years. President of
Hollywood Actors Theater, he has appeared
in theater, film, and episodic TV, including
Scrubs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and
The Drew Carey Show. His day job is as a
physician specializing in internal medicine.
p. 22
Vicki Topp is a senior practitioner and
instructor of Esalen Massage and somatic
bodywork. She teaches workshops and training groups internationally and is a
Registered Movement Therapist and practitioner of Body-Mind Centering. p. 75
Daphne Tse is a musician and teacher
integrating more than 15 years of yoga
and spiritual practice with her folk singer/
songwriter style. She studied at the Univ. of
Texas at Austin, Old Town School of Folk
Music in Chicago, and Berklee School of
Music. She tours internationally.
www.daphnetse.com. p. 78
U
Daniela Urbassek is a longtime mem-
ber of the Esalen massage staff. Her work is
strongly influenced by her studies in craniosacral work, movement, yoga, and dance.
p. 21
V
T
Jim Tamm, a former judge who has
mediated over 1,500 disputes, is the author
of Radical Collaboration: Five Essential
Skills to Reduce Defensiveness and
Build Successful Relationships. He is on
the faculty of the International Management
Program at the Stockholm School of
Economics. p. 7, 87
Patrice Vecchione is a collage artist,
Cida Vieira, born at the heart of the
dance circles of Brazil, has choreographed
and performed in the US, South America,
and Europe, with dance groups and artists
including Xuxa, Ray Charles, Daniela
Mercury, and Airto Moreira. Currently,
Cida is on the Movement Program staff at
Esalen. p. 17
Anne Watts was deeply influenced by
her father, the pioneering philosopher Alan
Watts. She studied with Virginia Satir and
Dr. Stan Dale, and taught special education
in public schools. Anne currently teaches at
the Human Awareness Institute, is a certified hypnotherapist and counselor, and leads
workshops worldwide. p. 44, 83
Cassandra Vieten is a psychologist,
director of research at the Institute of Noetic
Sciences, and a mind-body medicine
researcher at California Pacific Medical
Center. Dr. Veiten coauthored Living
Deeply: The Art and Science of
Transformation in Everyday Life. p. 75
Brian Kie Weissbuch is a botanist
Rizwan Virk, author of Zen
Entrepreneurship, has started several
high tech companies. He has been practicing
meditation since 1992, which he integrates
with yoga and shamanic, earth-based spirituality. Riz is currently CEO of Gameview
Studios, and an executive producer on a
number of independent films. p. 7, 32
Sharon Virtue is a painter who also
works on community development projects.
She has been the recipient of many awards
and residencies, including from the San
Francisco Arts Commission and the De
Young Museum. She was recently awarded
an international residency to work in
Ghana. p. 91
Barry Vissell is a psychiatrist who, with
his wife Joyce, practices the medicine of unconditional love worldwide. He and Joyce coauthored The Shared Heart, Models of Love,
Risk To Be Healed, The Heart’s Wisdom,
and Meant To Be, and have raised three
children. www.sharedheart.org. p. 80
Joyce Vissell is a nurse and psychotherapist who, with her husband Barry, founded
the Shared Heart Foundation dedicated to
changing the world one heart at a time.
Together they write a syndicated column for
80 periodicals worldwide. www.sharedheart.org. p. 80
W
Steve Waldrip has worked in end-of-life
care for the past 18 years and has been a hospice chaplain for 12. He is a chaplain with
Hospice of the Central Coast, Monterey,
Calif. He is a minister in the Ridhwan
Foundation. p. 75
Robert Walter, Joseph Campbell’s editor
for a decade, is president of the Joseph
Campbell Foundation and a poet/playwright with several decades of experience as
group leader, teacher, publisher, and theatrical producer/director/designer. p. 46, 48
author, and editor of several books including
Writing and the Spiritual Life. Her most
recent undertaking is a multi-media, onewoman play, A Woman’s Life in Pieces,
which was produced three times last year.
www.patricevecchione.com. p. 77
Gordon Watanabe is a founding partner of Personal Leadership Seminars, LLC
and professor emeritus at Whitworth
University. Dr. Watanabe facilitates diversity initiatives with educational institutions,
corporate entities, and communities. p. 7, 64
Frances Verrinder is a marriage and
Ellen Watson travels extensively, sharing the essence of her 26 years at Esalen.
Ellen founded MovingVentures, whose mission is vocational education in the fields of
breathwork, somatic and movement arts.
Since 1998, she has focused on supporting
the people of Bali, Indonesia. www.movingventures.org. p. 72, 75, 78
family therapist in San Francisco, Calif.
with thirty years of psychotherapy experience with couples, families, groups, and
individual adults. She is passionate about
cultivating loving relationships. p. 30
and acupuncturist in private practice in
Northern California since 1991. He founded
KW Botanicals, Inc. in San Anselmo, Calif.
He has 30 years experience as a botanist and
western herbalist. p. 61
Hank Wesselman is the author of The
Spiritwalker Trilogy, The Journey to the
Sacred Garden, and coauthor of
Awakening to the Spirit World (with
Sandra Ingerman). An anthropologist, he
works with an international expedition in
Ethiopia investigating the mystery of
human origins. p. 51, 88
Mark Whitwell has enjoyed a lifelong
relationship with the teachings of
Krishnamacharya through his students
T.K.V. Desikachar and Srivatsa
Ramaswami. He travels the world teaching
yoga and is the author of Yoga of Heart:
The Healing Power of Intimate
Connection. p. 79, 82
Rob Wilks is a full-time bodywork prac-
titioner and yoga teacher at Esalen. He specializes in Deep Bodywork®. He has taught
experiential leadership education in the US
and Eastern Europe. p. 15, 28, 96
Cris Williamson’s body of work includes
more than 30 albums. Recognized by
Performing Songwriter Magazine as one of
the decade’s most influential songwriters,
her groundbreaking record, The Changer
and the Changed, remains a best-selling
independent record. p. 15
Nicholas Wilton’s paintings have
graced best-selling book covers, children’s
books, editorial and corporate print media,
in addition to gallery exhibitions and private collections. Developer of the Artplane
Workshop, he has taught in such places as
Esalen, Tokyo, and Sundance, Utah. p. 67
Adam Wolpert is an artist, teacher, and
facilitator. He cofounded the Occidental
Arts and Ecology Center in Sonoma
County, Calif. In addition to leading art
workshops and exhibiting his work, he has
been leading trainings in decision-making,
facilitation, and consensus process for over a
decade. p. 51
Birgit Wolz is a movie lover and psychotherapist in Oakland, Calif. She is the
author of E-Motion Picture Magic, many
professional articles, and continuing education online courses. p. 33
Amity Wood is the director of Camp
SEA Lab, a marine science program based
out of Monterey, Calif., where she leads in
the development of field-based experiential
programs that promote understanding and
stewardship of the marine environment.
www.campsealab.org. p. 10, 62
109
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reservation information
Making Contact with Us
Premium Room Couple:
See box on page 1.
Friends Rate
Regular Rate
Fees and Accommodations
All workshop fees include:
• Workshop tuition: Unless otherwise noted,
participants must be 18 years or older.
• Food: Whenever meat is served, a vegetarian
and a vegan option are available.
• Lodging: Including Friday and Saturday night
accommodations for weekend workshops and
Sunday through Thursday night accommodations for 5-day workshops; Lodging for 7-day
workshops varies, please inquire at registration.
• 24-hour use of hot springs bath facilities, the
Arts Center (except when a workshop is
scheduled), meditation Round House, and
the entire Esalen grounds
• Participation in movement classes scheduled
during time on property
• One-year subscription to the Esalen Catalog
There are a variety of accommodations options at
Esalen. Please indicate your second choice for
accommodations and workshop in case your initial choice is unavailable. We cannot guarantee specific room requests.
Friends of Esalen: Friends of Esalen who
donate $50 or more will receive a $25 discount
on tuition for workshops registered for during
the twelve months following their donation.
Standard Accommodations: This is shared
housing, with two or three people per room and
in some cases a shared bathroom. Couples will
be housed privately. Standard guaranteed single
housing is available on a limited basis for an
additional $120 per night.
Weekend
Friends Rate
Regular Rate
$670
$695
5-Day
$1130
$1155
7-Day
$1740
$1765
Premium Accommodations: Esalen offers premium rooms as a guaranteed single or for couples. Premium rooms and amenities vary; some
rooms include upgraded bathrooms with walkin showers, Internet connection, in-room telephone, and enhanced sound and climate insulation. Some rooms have in-floor heating and
ocean views. Please call the Esalen office for
details. Due to Esalen’s remote location, all connectivity, including phones and Internet service,
is provided on a best-effort basis; we cannot
guarantee service.
Premium Room Single:
Friends Rate
Regular Rate
Weekend
5-Day
7-Day
$1220
$1245
$2505
$2530
$3665
$3690
Weekend
5-Day
7-Day
$1890
$1940
$3635
$3685
$5405
$5455
Point Houses: The three Point Houses are nestled behind the Esalen Garden at the cliff ’s edge.
Each is a private two-room suite with a living
room with woodstove, bedroom, sleeping loft,
full kitchen and dining area, private redwood
deck overlooking the Pacific, Internet connection, and in-room telephone. North and Middle
Point Houses can accommodate up to 2 adults
and 2 small children. South Point House can
accommodate up to 4 adults and 2 small children.
Please call the Esalen office for additional details.
Point House Single:
Friends Rate
Regular Rate
Weekend
5-Day
7-Day
$1570
$1595
$3130
$3155
$4540
$4565
Point House Couple:
Friends Rate
Regular Rate
Weekend
5-Day
7-Day
$2240
$2290
$4260
$4310
$6280
$6330
Bunk Bed Accommodations: This is shared
housing with four or more persons per room.
Friends Rate
Regular Rate
Weekend
5-Day
7-Day
$505
$530
$865
$890
$1335
$1360
Sleeping Bag Accommodations: Some Esalen
meeting rooms are used as shared sleeping bag
space. Storage space outside the meeting rooms
is available when the rooms are being used for
meetings (9 am–11 pm).
Friends Rate
Regular Rate
Weekend
5-Day
7-Day
$360
$385
$595
$620
$920
$945
Off-site Accommodations: If you are attending a
workshop and staying off property.
Friends Rate
Regular Rate
Weekend
5-Day
7-Day
$360
$385
$595
$620
$920
$945
Reduced Rate Options
Please request discounts at the time of registration.
Scholarship: Some scholarship assistance is
available for workshop participants in exchange
for a work commitment in housekeeping or the
kitchen. Our policy is one scholarship per person per year. Approved recipients will receive
their work schedules upon arrival at Esalen.
Weekend: $50, 4 hrs 5–7 days: $100, 8 hrs
Senior Citizen Discount: A discount is available to guests over 65, for workshops only. For
a weekend workshop, the discount is $25. For
5-day or longer workshops, $50.
Family Accommodations and Children’s
Fees: Fees for children under 18 enrolled in
110
family workshops are: $100 for weekend workshops and $200 for 5-day. Two full-paying adults
housed in standard accommodations may have
their children stay with them (not enrolled in a
workshop) for a meal charge of $20 per child per
day ($10 for children under 6). Note: If children
are enrolled in Gazebo School Park, additional
fees apply. See page 3 for more information
about children at Esalen.
Workshop Payment
If it’s possible for you, please pay full workshop
or Personal Retreat fees at the time of reservation. To reserve a space in any workshop, we
require the following deposits:
Weekend: $150
12–14 day: $400
5–7 day: $300
More than 14 days: $600
Deposits paid by credit card will automatically
have the workshop balance drawn from your
credit card five days before arrival. Deposits are
payable in U.S. currency only; overseas residents
must pay by checks drawn on U.S. banks or
credit cards and are nonrefundable.
Workshop Cancellation Policy: If you cancel
or change any part of your reservation at least
seven full days before the start of your workshop(s), your nonrefundable deposit, less a $75per-workshop processing fee, will be transferred
to an Esalen non-refundable credit account to be
used within one year.
If you cancel a workshop with less than seven
days notice, you forfeit your entire deposit. If
you have prepaid your entire reservation fee, we
will retain the fees as stated above and return
the balance to you.
Cancellations must be made by phone with
one of our reservation staff. “Seven full days”
means by Sunday before a Sunday workshop, and
by Friday before a Friday workshop. Donations to
the Friends of Esalen are nonrefundable. Esalen
may cancel a workshop due to low enrollment
two weeks before the workshop start date. You
may either come for Personal Retreat, get a
refund, or switch into another workshop scheduled for the same dates.
Ongoing Residence Program
The Ongoing Resident Program is a 26-day program (4 weeks and 3 weekends) designed to give
participants an intensive workshop experience
over a long term. Participants may select any of
the 5-day workshops scheduled during their
stay, with weekends off to enjoy Personal
Retreat. The cost is $4880 per 26-day period for
standard accommodations. No other discounts
apply. $150 cancellation fee with 7 days’ notice,
$330 with less than 7 days’ notice.
Personal Retreat Fees
The Esalen Personal Retreat (PR) is a self-structured experiential program based on reflection,
integration, and choice. In an over-structured,
over-stimulated world, PR students have an opportunity to experience and learn more using tools of
contemplation, journaling, and refocusing.
Following program orientation, participants
may continue to build their own curriculum,
choosing from over 25 different class offerings
in a typical week, plus other learning, study, and
contemplative opportunities. Classes each day
are drawn from yoga, meditation and contemplative practices, movement and dance, Gestalt
“open-seat” sessions, martial arts, and other subjects, with added enrichment from Visiting
Scholar programs, Wednesday evening presentations, Open Deck sessions, and other lecture and
discussion venues. Learning activities are also
available through Sustainability Tours and in the
Esalen kitchen and Farm and Garden. Most days
feature three to six or more such offerings, plus
unlimited access to Esalen’s meditation center,
baths and contemplative bath/music offerings,
garden walks, bodywork and other booked sessions, and other opportunities for deepening
learning, reflection, and integration.
The Esalen Personal Retreat is open only to
Members of the Friends of Esalen program,
supporting Esalen’s transformational mission
and our many subsidized mission programs.
For additional benefits of Membership, and to
join Friends of Esalen, please see page 2.
Personal retreat rates are per day and are per
person unless otherwise noted. They include all
meals for the duration of your stay. Applicable
taxes will be added.
Fri/Sat
Sun-Thurs
Standard
(2-3 persons per room)
$210
$160
Premium
(guaranteed single)
$450
$450
Premium
$600
(2 persons: priced per room)
$600
Point Houses
$700
(1 or 2 people: priced per room)
$650
South Point House Annex $150
(add’l South Point House bedroom
for up to 2 people, priced per person)
$150
Bunk Bed
$135
(4 or more persons per room)
fees. If you have prepaid your entire reservation
fee, we will retain the fees as stated above and
return the balance to you.
Cancellations must be made by phone with
one of our reservation staff. “Seven full days”
means by Sunday before a Sunday workshop,
and by Friday before a Friday workshop. Donations
to the Friends of Esalen are nonrefundable.
Public Bathing in the Hot Springs
In addition to round-the-clock availability for
Esalen guests, the hot springs are open to the
general public, by reservation only, 1 am–3 am,
for a cost of $20 per person, payable by credit
card only upon reservation. Reservations can be
made 8 am–8 pm (except Friday and Sunday:
lines close at noon), at 831-667-3047.
Transportation to Esalen
Ridesharing: We encourage ridesharing to reduce
the number of cars on the road and at Esalen.
See the reservation form for ridesharing options.
Van Service: A van service is available between
Monterey Airport/Monterey Transit Plaza/
Monterey Airbus Station and Esalen on Fridays
and Sundays. The incoming service departs
Monterey Airport at approximately 4pm, arrives
at Monterey Transit Plaza at 4:15pm, and
Monterey Airbus Station at 4:20pm. Return service departs Esalen at approximately 5:30pm.
The drive is approximately 1 1/4 hours to
Monterey Airport, so please plan plane flights
accordingly. Van service reservations must be
made with Esalen at least 24 hours prior to
arrival. The $60 one-way fee (subject to change)
is payable to Esalen upon arrival.
Schedules
Check-in/Check-out: Guests are welcome to
arrive at Esalen any time after 2 pm; rooms
become available after 4 pm. Check-out time is
12 noon on departure days. Lunch is provided
on departure days; we ask that you leave the
property by 2 pm.
Workshops: Workshop schedules normally
begin on 8:30 pm on the first evening and end
at 11:30 am on the final day.
For Your Information
$125
Personal Retreat Cancellation Policy: If you
cancel a Personal Retreat at least seven full days
in advance your nonrefundable deposit, less a
$75 processing fee, will be transferred to an
Esalen non-refundable credit account to be used
within one year.
If you cancel a Personal Retreat with less than
seven days’ notice, you forfeit one full night’s
Esalen is located 45 miles south of Monterey, and
11 miles south of Nepenthe on Coast Route 1.
This isolation and tranquility can deepen your
experience, yet it can also be a significant
change in environment. There is no cell phone
service at Esalen. There are two shared Internet
stations available and the Lodge has free WiFi
access, except during meal times. Due to Esalen’s
remote location, all connectivity (phones and
Internet) is provided on a best-effort basis; we
can’t guarantee service.
Snoring: If you are staying in shared accommodations and you snore, please be prepared to do
everything possible to minimize the discomfort
this may cause a roommate. Consider taking a
private room. If you do not snore, please come
prepared with earplugs for the possibility of
sharing a room with a snorer.
Flashlights: Esalen paths are very dimly lit at
night. Please bring a flashlight.
Health Services: Esalen has no medical services
or pharmaceutical supplies on site. Please come
prepared to administer to your own needs.
Esalen is 45 miles from a medical facility and
pharmacy.
Accessibility: Many Esalen paths, though
paved, are very steep. Access to some parts of the
property may be difficult depending on your
level of mobility. Please discuss your needs with
an Esalen representative at the time of registration (at least 72 hours prior to arrival) and we
may be able to assist. If you need sign language
interpretation for a workshop, please notify
Esalen at least 2 weeks prior to the workshop.
Nudity: In the hot springs, massage area, and
swimming pool, swimsuits are optional and nudity is common. We encourage each individual to
choose what is most comfortable for him or her.
The environment we strive for at Esalen is one of
personal sanctuary and respect for the human
body.
Illegal Drugs: In accordance with state and federal laws, the possession or use of illegal drugs
on Esalen grounds is strictly prohibited.
Lost and Found: To inquire about items lost
during your stay, call 831-667-3019.
Money: Esalen accepts cash, checks, and credit
cards. Esalen does not have an ATM, so please
bring enough cash for incidentals such as beverages and chocolate at the dinner bar, or gratuities for massage practitioners.
Personal Guests: Seminarians may not have
guests on property.
Pets: Other than registered service animals,
pets are not allowed.
Smoking: Smoking is not permitted in any
accommodations, meeting rooms, or other
indoor space.
Valuables: The Esalen office has no facilities to
store guest valuables.
Volunteering: Guests are welcome to contribute
time during their stay to work with Esalen staff,
usually in the kitchen or in cabins. This help
enables us to meet the pressures of peak working
times and provides an opportunity for guests to
experience Esalen from the inside.
Recommended Reading and Mail Order
Merchandise: All recommended reading is avail-
able online through www.esalen.org. All other
bookstore merchandise is available via mail order.
For more information, see www.esalen.org/bookstore.
Unofficial Website for the Esalen Community:
A group of former Esalen staff, work scholars,
and seminarians has created an online grassroots
alumni group at www.IThou.org.
111
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esalen institute reservation form
A nonrefundable deposit for each person registering and each workshop applied for must accompany this form. (Please see Reservation
Information, page 94, under Fees and Accommodations, Making
Contact with Us, and Cancellation Policy.) Reservations can now be
Please use this form to reserve a space in Esalen workshops. If more
than one person is registering, photocopy and submit separate
forms unless you’re registering as a couple with the same address
and phone number. Unless otherwise noted in the workshop
description, workshop participants must be at least 18 years old.
made online at www.esalen.org.
Name of Registrant___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE PRINT
Address ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sex: M o F o Couple o
E-mail _____________________________________________________
City ______________________________________________________________________________________
State __________________________________________________
Home Phone ( __________ ) ____________________________________________________________
Work Phone ( __________ )___________________________________________________________________
o Check if you have previously been to Esalen and this is a new address.
Zip _______________________________
Passenger Van Service:
Emergency Contact Information
Name:_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Relationship:_____________________________ Phone number:_____________________________________________________
Ridesharing: We support ridesharing and hope you will too. If you are driving to
Esalen and willing to give a ride to someone from your area, check here o
Occasionally there are unexpected situations that require us to contact you immediately
before your stay here. If you will not be at the above numbers during the two weeks prior
to the workshop, where may we reach you?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Please mark your first and second choices for housing after referring to page 110 for accommodation descriptions and rates. Total cost includes workshop fees, lodging, and meals.
o Check for standard accommodations, if available.
o Check for bunk bed room, if available.
o Check for sleeping bag space, if available.
o Check for off-site accommodations.
o Check if you wish to room as a couple.
o Check for Premium Accommodations, if available.
o Check for Point Houses, if available.
I want transportation from (check one):
o Monterey Airport at approximately 4:00 pm on
___________________________________________________________________________________
(date of arrival, Fridays and Sundays only).
o Monterey Transit Plaza at approximately 4:15 pm
(corner of Pearl and Alvarado, next to Ordway Drug)
o Monterey AirBus Station at approximately 4:20 pm
(438 Calle Principal near Montrio Bistro)
The $60-per-person charge (subject to change) is payable on
arrival at Esalen. Please prepare to arrive at the airport well before
4:00pm so you do not miss our van. Esalen cannot be responsible
for taxi fare or other transportation costs. If your plans for use
of the passenger van service change after you have made
your reservation, please notify us. The only departing van
service from Esalen is on Fridays and Sundays at approximately
5:30 pm. If you plan on taking this van please make sure that your
plane reservations are after 8:00 pm. Passenger van service is not
available at any other time.
Other Notes:
All of our rooms are non-smoking. If you smoke, please plan to do
so outside in designated smoking areas only.
No pets allowed, except registered animals in service.
Write here the name(s) of any person(s) with whom you wish to room.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Snoring: All of our accommodations are shared. Please come
prepared for the possibility of rooming with a snorer.
All workshop reservations require a nonrefundable deposit. The balance will be
o Check here if you do not want your phone number given out
automatically drawn from your credit card five days before your arrival.
Your signature below authorizes Esalen to charge your credit card for the balance.
Workshop Date
Leader’s Name
Fee
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Workshop Deposits Enclosed __________________________
for ridesharing.
Please make checks payable to Esalen Institute, in U.S. currency
only. (There will be a $25 fee for returned checks.) Overseas residents must pay by checks drawn on U.S. banks or with one of
the charge cards below. Checks or credit card information must
accompany the reservations form. Or, you may fax this form to
us at 831-667-2724. If you do so, you must include payment
via one of the credit cards below.
Your reservation can be charged to:
o MasterCard o Visa o American Express
Tax-deductible contribution to Friends of Esalen (Optional, see page 2) __________________________
Name on Card ____________________________________________________________________
$5 Catalog Contribution (Optional) __________________________
Card No. ____________________________________________________________________________
Subtotal __________________________
Expiration Date __________________________________________________________________
Total Amount Enclosed __________________________
Billing Zipcode _______________________CVV (security) code ________________
o Check here if this is your first visit to Esalen.
o Check here if you are a senior.
112
Authorizing Signature _________________________________________________________
You will receive a confirmation of your reservation by e-mail.
continuing education programs
Zen and Psychotherapy
Jan 2-7
A Doorway in Time: Yoga
Jan 2-7
The I in the Storm: Self Leadership
Jan 2-7
Awakening the Heart
Jan 7-9
Mindfulness and Heartfulness
Jan 7-9
Designing the Life We Want
Jan 7-9
The Practice of Happiness and Health
Jan 7-9
Connection through Touch: Couples
Jan 9-14
Radical Aliveness: Core Energetics
Jan 9-14
From Recovery to Resilience to Thriving
Jan 9-14
The Healing Art of Deep Bodywork
Jan 14-16
The Board of Registered Nursing has approved Esalen as a provider of
continuing education for registered nurses (provider number 01152).
For additional information on CE courses for nurses, contact Mary Anne
Will, R.N., 831-667-3010.
Please note: All two-day workshops offer 10 hours of CE credit and all five-day
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Expanding the Practice of Sex Therapy
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Apr 22-24
Personal Sustainability in Life and Work
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Feb 20-25
Mindful Self-Compassion
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Apr 24-29
The Heart of Healing: For Clinicians
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Feb 20-25
The Return of Desire
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Apr 24-29
Shamanic Healing and Brazilian Spiritism
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Feb 20-25
Cinema Alchemy: Power of Movies for Healing
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Feb 25-27
Limitless Mind: Remote Viewing
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Feb 27-Mar 4 Not For the Feint of Heart
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Mar 4-6
Getting the Love You Want: Couples
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Mar 4-6
Revealing the Wisdom Within: Yoga
Mar 4-6
Arrive Already Loved
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Mar 6-11
Painting from the Source
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Mar 6-11
I-You-Us
Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice
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Mar 6-11
Chakras Actually
Jan 14-16
The Mind/Body Connection
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Mar 11-13
Spiritual Massage and Shaman Ways
Jan 14-16
Celebrating Womanhood
n
Mar 11-13
Gestalt Practice: Exploring Emotion
Jan 14-16
Spinal Awareness (with Humor)
n
n
Mar 13-18
Painting Improvisations
Jan 14-21
Advanced Bodywork: Touching the Core
n
n
Mar 13-18
Spiritual Massage
Jan 16-21
A Holistic Approach to Vision Care
Jan 16-21
A New Beginning: Courage and Heart
Jan 16-21
Trauma, Memory, and Restoration of Self
Jan 21-23
Awakening Joy
Jan 21-23
The Body Keeps the Score: Trauma
Jan 21-23
n
n
n
n
Apr 29-May 1 Exploring Male Friendships
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
May 8-13
The Monroe Institute's Gateway Voyage
n
May 8-13
Zero Balancing II
n
n
May 8-15
CFR and the Feldenkrais Method
n
n
May 13-15
Leadership Mastery
May 13-15
Insider’s Guide to Partner and Relationship
n
n
May 15-20
The Embodied, Systemic Group
n
n
n
May 15-20
Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy
n
n
n
May 15-20
An Esalen Massage Retreat
n
n
Mar 13-18
The Profound Simplicity of Being Present
n
May 20-22
Mindfulness in Deep Relationship
n
Mar 20-25
Self-Healing: Create Health and Vitality
Jan 23-28
Acupressure for Anyone
n
n
Mar 20-25
Ageless Vitality: Perpetual Renewal
Jan 23-28
In an Unspoken Voice
Mar 25-27
Art and Science of Mindfulness
Jan 23-28
Living Beyond Self-Limiting Behavior
n
Jan 28-30
Being Danced: 5Rhythms Essentials
n
Jan 28-30
Intro. to Gestalt Awareness Practice
n
Jan 28-30
Presence through Body Centered Awareness
n
n
Mar 27-Apr 1 Attachment, Attunement and Adult Sexuality
n
n
n
n
May 20-22
The Art and Science of Transformation
n
May 20-22
Trends in Esalen Massage and Bodywork
n
n
n
May 22-27
The Upledger Institute's CranioSacral I
n
n
n
May 22-27
The Gifts of Grief
n
n
n
n
May 27-29
Mind, Mood and Happiness
n
n
n
May 27-29
Family Mindfulness Retreat
Couples' Communication Retreat
n
n
May 29-June 3 Gestalt Awareness Practice
n
n
May 29-June 3 Liberating Your Essential Self
n
n
Apr 1-3
Intro. to Mindfulness Meditation
Apr 1-3
Esalen Tai Ji
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
Feb 4-6
Deep Healing: Mind/Body Medicine
n
n
n
Apr 1-3
Gay Men Thriving!
Feb 4-6
Yoga for the "Yogically Challenged"
n
n
Apr 3-8
Rosen Method Movement
Feb 6-11
Trauma, Attachment, Dissociation and the Body n
n
Apr 3-8
Shamanic Cosmology: Visionseeker Level 3
n
Feb 6-11
Heart and Libido: Intimacy for Couples
n
n
Apr 3-8
n
Feb 6-11
An Intro. to Rolf Structural Integration
Apr 3-8
The Healing Art of Deep Bodywork
Feb 6-11
Finding Your Deepest Purpose
n
Apr 8-10
Thriving in Mother-Daughter Relationships
Feb 11-13
Finding True Love
n
Apr 8-10
An Esalen Massage Retreat for Couples
Feb 11-13
Love, Sex and Intimacy
n
Apr 10-15
Imagining the Feminine in Film
n
Feb 11-13
Feldenkrais Spinal Awareness
n
n
Apr 10-15
Transforming Trauma with EMDR
n
Feb 11-13
Esalen Massage for Couples
n
n
Apr 10-15
Stronger at the Broken Places
n
Feb 13-18
Trauma First Aide
n
n
n
Apr 10-15
Abandonment to Healing
n
Feb 13-18
Career Transition: Four Acts of Courage
n
Apr 15-17
The Art of Healthy Aging
n
n
Feb 13-18
Seduced by Earth
n
Apr 15-17
Experiencing Your Spiritual Self
n
Feb 13-18
Buddhist Practices and the Healer
Apr 15-17
The Science of a Meaningful Life
Feb 13-18
Develop Your Romantic Intelligence
Apr 15-17
Traditional Taiji (Tai Chi) and Qigong
Apr 17-22
Apr 17-22
Apr 17-24
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
May 27-29
n
Feb 13-Mar 13 28-Day Esalen Massage Certification
n
n
n
n
n
n
5Rhythms and Gestalt Awareness Practice
n
n
n
Tibetan Buddhist Meditation-Advanced Course
n
n
n
From Self-Justification to Self-Actualization
n
n
n
n
Mar 27-Apr 1 Esalen Massage with a Touch of Yoga
Apr 1-3
n
n
n
n
Jan 30-Feb 6
n
n
Mar 27-Apr 1 Introduction to CFR
n
n
n
n
Jan 30-Feb 4
Qigong and Inner Alchemy
n
n
n
Feb 18-20
The Power of Practice: Embodiment of Esalen
Integrative Body Psychotherapy (IBP)
Weekend Esalen Massage Intensive
Relationships: The Courage to Begin
n
May 6-8
Mar 13-18
Intro. to Gestalt Awareness Practice
n
n
Awakening the Creative: Painting
n
Love Yourself - For Everyone Else's Sake
Feb 18-20
n
Get Clear, Stay Clear: Transitions
May 1-6
n
Mar 18-20
n
May 1-6
n
Mar 18-20
n
n
Free Your Breath, Free Your Life
n
n
Apr 29-May 1 What's Next? Revisioning Our Lives
Mar 13-18
n
n
n
n
n
n
Apr 29-May 1 5Rhythms: Sweat Your Prayers
n
n
n
n
Apr 29-May 1 Tibetan Sound Healing
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
PS
YC
HO
F T LOG
s
IS
TS
N &L
UR
C
SE SW
s
S
BO
D
YW
O
RK
ER
S
Feb 18-20
n
n
n
PS
YC
HO
F T LOG
s
IS
TS
N &L
UR
C
SE SW
s
BO S
D
YW
O
RK
ER
S
PS
n
YC
HO
F T LOG
s
IS
TS
N &L
UR
C
SE SW
s
BO S
D
YW
O
RK
ER
S
workshops offer 26 hours. If you wish to receive a certificate, please notify your workshop
leader. There is a $25 fee for each certificate of completion, payable to the office.
M
E
TL
TI
SE
UR
CO
S
AT
E
D
Jan 2-7
and also noted in the Seminars section. For further information, contact
Brita Ostrom at 831-667-3040.
M
E
salen is approved by the American Psychological Association to
sponsor continuing education for psychologists. (Esalen maintains
responsibility for this program and its content; California psychologists are required to report their hours to the MCEP Accrediting
Agency); Esalen is also approved for MFTs and LCSWs by the California
Board of Behavioral Sciences (provider number PCE1594); and massage
practitioners and bodyworkers by the National Certification Board
for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) as a continuing
education provider under Category A (provider number 043062-00).
Workshops for which CE credit has been approved are listed below
M
Q
n
n
May 29-June 3 Moving Meditation Practice
n
June 3-5
The Undervalued Self
n
June 3-5
Sustaining Earth, Sustaining Soul
n
June 3-5
Shared Heart: Couple's Journey to Wholeness
n
n
June 5-10
More Than a Communication Workshop
n
n
June 5-10
Embodying the Radiance Sutras
n
June 5-10
Holistic Sexuality: A New Integral Approach
n
June 5-10
Gestalt Practice and CFR
n
June 10-12
Daring to Trust: Real Love and Intimacy
n
June 10-12
Neuroscience of Mind, Brain, Consciousness
n
June 10-12
Weekend Massage Intensive
June 17-19
Building Collaborative Relationships
June 17-19
Spinal Awareness (with Humor)
n
n
June 17-19
Massage Retreat for Couples
n
n
n
June 19-24
Qigong Empowerment
n
n
n
June 19-24
Spiritwalker: Visionseeker Level 1
n
n
n
June 19-24
Choosing Aliveness and Intimacy
n
Self-Acceptance: The Heart of Healing
n
n
June 24-26
Realization Process: The Essence of Being
Traditional Taiji (Tai Chi) and Qigong
n
n
June 24-26
Hanna Somatics
Mahamudra Meditation
n
June 24-26
Getting Unblocked
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
n
113
n
Esalen Institute
55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, California 93920-9546
Esalen Institute is a center to encourage work in the
humanities and sciences that promotes human values
and potentials. Its activities consist of public seminars,
residential work-study programs, invitational conferences, research, and semi-autonomous projects.
If you move, please let us know your new
address. It helps us save trees and money.
Non-Profit Organization
U.S. Postage
PA I D
Las Vegas, NV
Permit No. 2543

January 2011 Esalen Catalog

Transcription

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