Voices Of Esalen

Today I’m super excited to present to you another episode from the Archives From this trove of 1/2 inch reel to reel tapes that we recently found mouldering in a storage facility near the Monterey Airport - a 1966 dialogue between Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy and philosopher Alan Watts and today is PART TWO— notable for being one of the only instances I've encountered of Michael Murphy conducting an interview himself. But hey, when it’s Alan Watts, all bets are off. So, first, who is Alan Watts? He’s born in England, but moved to the United States in 1938 to pursue Zen training in New York. Then he attended a Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, got a master’s degree in theology. became an Episcopal priest in 1945, left the ministry in 1950 and then he moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies. It was during the 1950s that he met Dick Price and Michael Murphy - both of whom were kicking around the Bay Area after their stints at Stanford, trying to figure

Today we present a rare archival conversation between Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy and philosopher Alan Watts, recorded in 1966. Watts, who taught at Esalen from its founding in 1962 until his death in 1973, was among the foremost interpreters of Eastern philosophy for Western audiences. In this wide-ranging dialogue, Watts articulates his theory of human evolutionary development through analytical consciousness and examines our species' complex relationship with the natural world. The recording provides a glimpse into the intellectual atmosphere of Esalen's formative years, when interdisciplinary boundaries were fluid and fundamental questions about human nature were approached with imaginative freedom. Enjoy part one of the conversation ; part two shall follow in short time.

Fletcher Tucker - Big Sur artist, Esalen faculty member, independent musician, and wilderness guide - is a kind of spiritual cartographer and wild-hearted philosopher of the sonic and sacred. He has a new album, Kin, which is the focus of this conversation. Kin is a ritual, a spell, a window into the more-than-human world. It is a collection of drone-based, chant-infused compositions built with ancestral instruments like Swedish bagpipes, bowed zithers, and elder flutes. In this conversation, Fletcher walks us through the making of Kin, which emerged over years of wilderness pilgrimage through the Big Sur backcountry; songs that were written while walking, chanted into being beside waterfalls and totemic boulders, assembled later with vintage Mellotrons, and dulcimers that seem to hum with the memory of older worlds. We talk animism, and Fletcher’s embrace of a concentric, non-hierarchical cosmology where stones, rivers, ancestors, and unborn children all participate in the great chorus of being. We talk

Ken Robins has been part of the beating heart of Esalen for many decades. A somatic Gestalt practitioner, couples counselor, and devoted early student of Dick Price, Will Schutz, Jessica Britt and many other Esalen legends, Ken has spent his adult life exploring the transformational power of relationship, presence, and the body’s innate wisdom. In this conversation, Ken traces his unlikely journey from a violent and impoverished upbringing in postwar London to the barefoot wandering that eventually led him to Esalen in the late 1960s. Along the way, we discuss: His early taste of encounter group work in the Berkeley of the late 60's, and his reflections on the powerful check-ins and Gestalt work at Esalen in the 1980s The development of his trauma-informed, deeply embodied couples practice at Esalen His belief in the nervous system as a portal to healing And why, in his view, contact, not control, is the foundation of true transformation. This is a rich, intimate dialogue with a man who

In this episode, we speak with Anne Hamilton, founder of the Survivorship Collective: a survivor-led initiative offering legal, psychedelic-assisted therapy to people living with cancer. Anne is an educator, filmmaker and breast cancer survivor whose own journey through illness (and a life-altering psilocybin experience) led her to ask deeper questions about grief, mortality, and transformation. We talk about the liminal terrain of survivorship, the limitations of conventional medicine, and how a psychedelic journey helped her metabolize the kind of fear no doctor could treat. Today, the Survivorship Collective offers safe, science-informed, and deeply human psychedelic support to people facing the hardest truths life throws at us. Spread the Word: https://survivorshipcollective.com/help-us Retreats: https://survivorshipcollective.com/retreats

In this episode of Voices of Esalen, Sam speaks with spiritual teacher, author, and nonprofit founder Caverly Morgan about the nature of personal ego as well as the collective ego that shapes our culture, relationships, and our sense of separation. Named one of 2025’s powerful women in the mindfulness movement, Caverly brings a rare combination of Zen training, modern nondual wisdom, and deep relational insight to questions of identity, suffering, and awakening. In this episode she speaks about what it means to wake up together, the challenges of remaining present in a world built on distraction, and the role of contemplative practice in societal transformation. Caverly is the founder of Peace in Schools and Realizing Freedom Together, and the author of The Heart of Who We Are and A Kids Book About Mindfulness. Her presence is clear, warm, and radically hopeful. Caverly Morgan at Esalen: Return to Belonging: The Heart of Who We Are October 20–24, 2025 https://www.esalen.org/workshops/return-to-belonging

Last year we brought you a real Esalen check-in (episode one). Some months later, a follow up episode dropped. This practice of the check-in is rooted in the Gestalt therapy that evolved at Esalen over the years. It's an authentic cornerstone of the Esalen experience, often described as a catalyst for self-awareness, connection, and personal growth. Today's episode is the logical continuation - Episode 3, feat. Rossano Shepherd, Peggy Horan, Jess Siller, Sawyer Lavelle, Shira Levine, and Sam Stern. What you'll hear is real, authentic, and unscripted. While our participants were aware of being recorded, they spoke from the heart. We've made every effort to preserve the intimacy and rawness of the experience with only minimal editing.

In this lively episode, psychiatrist Dr. Jacob Towery invites us into the heart of his upcoming Esalen workshop on overcoming shyness, releasing shame, and embracing authentic connection. A Stanford-trained psychiatrist, Dr. Towery works with adolescents and adults in private practice. His approach blends evidence-based therapy with playfulness, skillful vulnerability, and social courage. Here, he guides live shame-blocking and flirtation exercises with two brave Esalen staff members, Liz Lea and Wuya Xu. What unfolds is a real-time demonstration of how presence, lightheartedness, and risk-taking can unlock more joy in our interactions. Whether you’re looking to meet someone new, rekindle romance, or simply feel more at ease around other humans, this episode offers some practical tools and a fresh take on what it means to be fully yourself in relationship. Finding Humans Less Scary at Esalen Institute September 8-12, 2025 https://www.esalen.org/workshops/finding-humans-less-scary-0912025

Jacoby Ballard is a trans yoga teacher, social justice educator, and author of A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation. In this episode of Voices of Esalen, Ballard shares reflections on how contemplative and wellness spaces can deeply support queer and trans communities, especially in a time of heightened visibility, vulnerability, and political resistance. The conversation moves through themes of embodiment, parenthood, and liberation. Ballard offers insights into the experience of raising a trans child, discusses the role of anger as both a signal and a sacred force, and explores what freedom actually feels like in his body. Grounded in decades of practice and activism, Ballard's perspective invites listeners to consider how personal healing and collective liberation are intertwined. This episode is for anyone interested in the intersections of spirituality, identity, justice, and what it means to truly show up for one another, in body, mind, and heart.

Anaïs Nin was a literary pioneer who wrote boldly about the inner lives of women long before it was culturally accepted. Her work, including Delta of Venus, Little Birds, The House of Incest, and her 16-volume diary, continues to influence generations of writers. Nin’s life was as unconventional as her prose. She trained in psychoanalysis with Otto Rank, conducted passionate affairs with both Henry Miller and his wife June, and for a time maintained two simultaneous marriages on opposite coasts. Her diaries chronicle these transgressions with brutal honesty and no small amount of poetic insight. She also had a deep connection to Big Sur and to Esalen. She once described this coastline as “a curving hand cupped around a secret." In many ways, she was a secret, too: mysterious, erotic, intuitive and ahead of her time. This is Anaïs Nin in her own voice, in 1972, with the original Q and A/ audience interaction.

In this episode of Voices of Esalen, host Sam Stern sits down with two members of the Esalen community, Sarah Lavelle (also known as Sawyer) and Abigail Barnes (also known as Bo), for a heartfelt conversation about non-binary identity, self-expression, and the journey of living beyond the binary. Topics include personal stories, pronouns, the evolving language of gender, and the beauty and difficulty of being one’s authentic self in a world still learning how to understand. Sawyer is a longtime full-spectrum doula, facilitator, and devoted practitioner of meditation, Buddha-dharma, and Relational Gestalt Practice in the tradition of Dick Price and Dorothy Charles. A seeker of liberation for all beings, they embody presence and compassion in all they do. Abigail is a teacher at Big Sur Park School and a beloved presence in the Esalen lodge. Passionate about solitude, Kaula Tantric yoga, and the study of Gestalt, they will soon continue their journey in Stockholm, Sweden, exploring consciousness and educatio

Ari Kuschnir is a filmmaker, creative strategist, and the founder of the production company m ss ng p eces. His work is driven by themes of empathy, consciousness, and transformation. In this episode, Ari joins Sam for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of storytelling, particularly in the arena of AI filmmaking. They explore the ethical and emotional landscape of generative AI, and his new Esalen-inspired short video, a surreal time-traveling narrative conjured through text-to-video tools. Also included: — How AI filmmaking serves as a collective dream engine and wish-fulfillment machine — The origin story Ari's "Transmutation" series and why they work in the medium of AI film — Whether cinema and art can become a tool for cultural repair and personal empowerment — The strange kinship between algorithmic hallucination and spiritual insight This is a rich and intimate conversation with a trailblazing artist that centers around what it means to create meaningful media in a time of profound transform

We sit down with Dr. Elizabeth Philipose to trace the roots of modern patriarchy back to the “1492 paradigm” of Euro-colonialism and its enduring assault on femininity, the body, and the earth. Elizabeth unpacks how ideas of weakness, passivity, and scarcity were written into our social, political, and economic institutions, and how those same systems still drive homophobia, environmental destruction, and today’s surge of authoritarian fear. Dr. Philipose also lays out the foundations of decolonial wellness, showing how trauma is embedded in our bodies, and offering practices, from guided journeying to radical self-love, that awaken a more expansive sense of self. She explores the “boomerang effect” of imperial violence at home and abroad, the radical potential of mothering and “original love,” and why reclaiming the Divine Feminine is essential to building societies grounded in peace and wholeness. Dr. Philipose at Esalen, May 26-30, 2025 https://www.esalen.org/workshops/embracing-the-divine-feminine-a-mys

Ramzi Fawaz is an award-winning queer cultural critic, public speaker, and educator. He is the author of two books, including "The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics" (2016), and "Queer Forms." (2022). In 2019-2020, Fawaz was a Stanford Humanities Center fellow. He is currently a Romnes Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Please be warned: this conversation is a firehose of brilliance. We cover a frankly outrageous number of topics, including: The politics and poetics of gender/ The radical imagination of the 1960s and 70s/ What happens when college students of today read manifestos from the 1970s and discover just how fiery, and fearless those voices actually were/ How feminist and gay liberation were deeply intertwined... and yet different/ The dark seduction of wounded identity and the political dead-end of suffering as a personality/ What the Beatles, postwar masculinity, and femme androgyny have to do with trans desire and cultural anxiety/

Today, we're opening the vaults to share a rare and remarkable recording from Esalen’s rich historical archive: a 1967 lecture and live demonstration by none other than Dr. Ida Rolf, the pioneering founder of Structural Integration—more commonly known today as Rolfing. But what is Rolfing? Often described as intense (and sometimes even painful), Rolfing is a powerful form of bodywork that focuses on the manipulation and realignment of connective tissue—fascia—to promote structural balance and physical freedom. Ida Rolf believed that by methodically reorganizing the body’s structure in gravity, not only could chronic pain and postural issues be resolved, but profound emotional and psychological healing could also occur. This archival gem features Dr. Rolf in her element—lecturing with intellectual precision, delivering her insights with wit and candor, and guiding a live demo with such vivid specificity that, even without visuals, you feel transported into the room beside her. It’s a masterclass in both body

Today we’re sharing a conversation that took place in October 2022, between members of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County and the Esalen Institute. Representing the Esselen tribe are Jana Nason and Stephen Vicente Arevalo. Jana Nason is an Esselen and Rumsen descendant, and an enrolled tribal member of the ETMC. She is the nonprofit secretary, and serves on the Tribal Council as Tribal Administrator and Secretary, Publications Chair, and Cultural Resource Committee member. She also manages the Cultural Archeological Monitoring program and serves her Tribe in that capacity. She is dedicated to educations, and protecting and preserving the cultural heritage and ancestral sacred sites. Stephen Arevalo is a Esselen and Rumsen descendant. He is deeply passionate about his ancestry and has started a language re-learning class for tribal members. He is an educational speaker, and an active community member. Representing Esalen Institute is Douglas Drummond. Douglas served as the Director for Healing Arts and S

Once again, we’re diving deep into the Esalen archives to share a fascinating historical recording - this one featuring electronic music pioneer Doug McKechnie. In the late 1960s and early '70s, Doug McKechnie was at the cutting edge of musical innovation, harnessing the revolutionary Moog synthesizer to create mesmerizing sounds. McKechnie was a contemporary of iconic figures like Wendy Carlos, known for the 1968 record "Switched-on Bach," a collection of pieces by Bach that were performed by Carlos on the Moog synthesizer. This album, which won a Grammy for Classical Album of the Year, played a key role in bringing synthesizers to popular music. McKechnie was also tied to the Grateful Dead, contributing to the band's most experimental album, "Aoxomoxoa.” He also played at Altamont, not really a feather in anyone’s cap, but it shows the breadth of his growing popularity, and that of the Moog synthesizer. Moogs are characterized by distinctive electronic timbres and pulsating rhythms, as well as hypnotic se

Richard Horan first arrived at Esalen in the mid 1960s, traveling from Los Angeles to Big Sur at the height of a cultural renaissance. He was an early member of the Esalen massage crew and played a pivotal role in founding the Esalen Garden, a space that continues to nourish the land and community today. He was also deeply involved in the psychedelic inquiry of the time. Over the years, his connections to Esalen deepened: with Gabrielle Roth he had a son, Jonathan Horan. Later, he married Peggy Horan, and together they raised two daughters, Lucia and Jasmine. Horan's purpose as an artist was revealed to him during his time at Esalen when he founded the Art Barn as a collective with other artists.  Horan remains legendary in Big Sur for his mastery of jade carving. His work includes rings, earrings, pendants, belt buckles, and sculptures, many of which are inspired by ancient esoteric symbols and indigenous traditions. His signature earrings are renowned for their thin-cut jade, which allows light to pass

A few months ago we brought you a real Esalen check-in (episode one). This practice, rooted in the Gestalt therapy that evolved at Esalen over the years is an authentic cornerstone of the Esalen experience. It's often described as a catalyst for self-awareness, connection, and personal growth. Today's episode is a continuation - Episode 2. Our check-in features Alex Shepherd, Peggy Horan, Jess Siller, Faith Blakeney, Shira Levine, and Sam Stern. What you'll hear is real. It is authentic and unscripted. While our participants were aware of being recorded, they spoke from the heart. We've made every effort to preserve the intimacy and rawness of the experience with only minimal editing. This is the secret sauce - the open, honest sharing that forms the foundation for personal transformation.

Today we're opening up the vault to share an extraordinary archival recording from one of the most influential figures in Esalen's history, Frederic Spiegelberg — and while that name might not be as immediately recognizable as some of the luminaries who graced Esalen's grounds, like Joseph Campbell, Alan Watts, or Gabrielle Roth, understanding Frederic Spiegelberg and his place in Esalen mythology might be key to understanding Esalen itself . . . because in truth, without Frederic Spiegelberg, there might well never have been an Esalen at all. In 1950, Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy was just another Stanford student when he, by complete accident, attended one of Friedric Spiegelberg's philosophy courses. As recounted in Jeffrey Kripal's fantastic book, “Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religions,” that single class would become an initiatory event that transformed Murphy's life forever, providing a pivotal bridge into the metaphysical, the mystical, and the psychical realms, dimensions that would go