Welcome Home to Esalen
Esalen President & CEO Gordon Wheeler's Blog
June 2009
"You're from Esalen!" her eyes shone. "That's my spiritual home." That last part she said with great emphasis and in English although this was Spain, and her English was halting. It turned out she'd spent a month at Esalen some 17 years ago, and had been longing to go back ever since. The language difference had held her back—the course she'd taken was the 28-day Esalen massage training, which she'd felt she could handle, as very many do, without full command of English.
I pointed out to her that we have close to a hundred massage and other body healing modality courses in the catalog every year, plus at least that number or more in meditation, yoga, movement, dance, and other disciplines that are not primarily verbal. And then there are the visual and plastic arts, and the music. You don't have to be taking one of the equally ample and varied programs in one my areas—relationships, family, psychology, personal growth, coaching, leadership, organizations, etc.—to have a transformative experience at Esalen. And let's not forget ecology, permaculture, new thought, social and political issues, education, business, and all the rest.
It's not exactly that there's something for everyone at Esalen. It's more that there's something for every one of the fundamental dimensions of our shared humanity—body, mind, heart, spirit, and our deeply social, relational selves and lives, often in combinations that may surprise you. Combinations like spirit and sustainability, yoga and social action, or new approaches to healing and growth in mind/body/relationship.
But back to Spain and my new friend. What is it that accounts for the deep heart connection people around the world feel for Esalen? I speak all over the world and a number of times a year on behalf of Esalen and the larger work that we share with so many other networks and initiatives. And everywhere I go, I encounter people, like that woman in Spain, who come up to me full of excitement and gratitude, to tell about their experiences at Esalen. They/we are people for whom Esalen stands as a touchstone, a place inside that they got to remind themselves of what is most important and alive, what we all share, and what gives each of us the unique gifts we have. These gifts are the unique potential that Esalen is dedicated to helping each of us realize. Why do so many of us all across the world feel a connection so profound and so stimulating with this magic place, that we recall it with such feeling—sometimes years later, and sometimes on many, many successive visits?
But, unlike most other "businesses," Esalen is also a living residential community—something you know firsthand, because when you come here, you become part of that community, eating in the dining hall, taking the morning classes and seminars right along with the staff and interns, sitting together in the magic baths in the sun or under the stars, oftentimes forming relationships that last far beyond your visit. So many other businesses and organizations these days seem all too ready to just lay people off and send them out to fend for themselves in harsh times. Esalen is doing it differently. Being "laid off" at Esalen would mean enormous life upheaval, not just to those directly affected but to our whole team and living community. Esalen's leadership, Board, and whole team are committed to making that a last resort that we hope we'll never come to.
What I hear most often is some variation of: "I came alive at Esalen, I found my true direction at Esalen," or simply, "When I first got to Esalen, I knew I'd come home." And from what I hear, for more than a few, it's, "I found my life partner at Esalen. We first met there." I know I'm one of that group. For some it's an almost instantaneous kind of thing. For others it's a growing connection that slowly deepens over time.
For some it's the encounter with the place itself. There's something in the land, in the dramatic confrontation of mountains, ocean, and sky that wakes you up, makes you ready at some deeper level for a new encounter with self and others. Teachers often tell us that their students arrive in group ready to open up and learn, in a way that's sometimes hard to equal in a busier, more familiar setting. And then there are the courses, selected and developed from around the world to challenge us in some of those deep dimensions of mind/body, emotions/relationships, and spirit/action, wherever new thought, new methods and new combinations can advance us on our shared and our individual paths. Many come back for the community here as well, that rare experience of a living social organism—seekers serving seekers—with all the satisfactions, joys, and frustrations of real living. Our staff and interns take the courses here too, so that we can really form one large community both while you're here and after, with connections that can be profound and lasting.
In a wider sense, all of us who have ever been touched by the place or the work are members of the worldwide Esalen community. We hear at Esalen love to hear what you're doing with the work in your own way in the world and in your own life. And we want to hear what you're learning about applying the things we believe and strive for together that would help us offer an even better program here.
In the year ahead we'll be rebuilding the Esalen website and Esalen's Web presence, we'll be offering new ways to support staying in touch with Esalen and each other. To do that we'll be making more use of all the interactive social networking that's available to us today. You'll hear more about this work as the year goes on.
Meantime, Esalen is here for you when you need it and can get away. Whether it's your first time or your hundredth—welcome home to Esalen.