Living a Purposeful Life:
With a special tribute to Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Featuring Robert Reich, Eric Schlosser, Richard Tarnas, Chungliang Al Huang, David Darling, Jeff Kripal, Ken Dychtwald, Michael Murphy and more! For forty-eight years, Esalen has been a leader and an incubator in a wide range of areas that are in crisis today: sustainability, global economics, international politics, health and healing, lifelong personal growth, education for leadership, creativity, and more. These, and our common search for meaning through religion, spirituality, and authentic personal commitments, are just some of the areas where Esalen has served as a multidisciplinary melting pot and a conceptual pioneer, reaching out to influence much larger systems of thought, cultural forms, and policy. Each fall Esalen hosts a very special benefit that brings generous supporters of Esalen together with visionary leaders of our time, to cultivate fresh ideas, new energy, and creative perspectives that can transform crisis into opportunity. The dialogic synergy among all participants promises a weekend that former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has characterized as "a true growth experience... a true pleasure... a community of people that understands…that personal development and social development go hand in hand." In a format both intimate and integrated, this unique weekend experience promises to inspire and empower, drawing on your creative ideas and work as well as those of the presenters, with ample opportunity for questions, dialogue, and informal conversation in the magical setting of Esalen. In the stimulation and camaraderie of our time together, we will encounter new possibilities for ourselves, for our shared world, and for Esalen's unique programming and contributions. With the guiding hand of our facilitator Ken Dychtwald, each of us may find new opportunities to make a difference in these unprecedented times—through philanthropy and through our own roles as change agents and leaders. This year’s program will include a special tribute to Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy as we celebrate his 80th birthday and the visionary work of Esalen's Center for Theory and Research under Michael's inspiration. All speakers are generously donating their time. By participating or sponsoring others to participate, you co-create "Living A Purposeful Life" while providing funding support for Esalen's green renewal and mission-driven, non-revenue-generating programs and initiatives. Together, we're facing challenging, sometimes overwhelming times—and with them, exciting renewal at the personal, national, cultural, and hopefully world levels. In the end, what we have at hand to meet these challenges is each other. When we meet with our hearts, our spirits, our vulnerabilities, and our struggles—and our heartbreaks—all opened up and shared, then together we are enough. Join us for this ninth annual benefit weekend that combines a rare experience of inspiration and creative personal contact with the chance to give back to Esalen and support its continuing role as an incubator and midwife of new solutions for our culture. In addition to the inspiring, provocative, interactive presentations, activities will include movement and meditation classes, a silent and live “What’s the Value of Anything?” auction featuring Ashley Smith Johnson, an opportunity to meet other supporters of Esalen, to have fun, relax, enjoy the baths, and just be. Registration Register early—this unique event is expected to sell out. The cost is:
Call for pricing on our North Point House and premium rooms. To sign up or learn more, please contact "Unique and magical—a rare combination of mind-opening ideas, direct contact with activists and thought leaders (both presenters and fellow participants!), and on top of that, a whale of a good time. We ranged from tears to hilarity, from sober contemplation to excited dialogue to moments of sheer raucous fun. And we found ourselves stretching our pocketbook for Esalen initiatives and auction items just too good to pass up. Wouldn't miss it for anything—we came straight home and put it on our calendar for next year." — A past participant Special Guest Presenters 
ROBERT REICH is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as Secretary of Labor under President Clinton. His books include Supercapitalism, The Work of Nations (translated into 22 languages), Locked in the Cabinet, and Reason. His weekly commentaries on Public Radio’s “Marketplace” are heard by nearly five million people. In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Václav Havel Prize, by the former Czech president, for his visionary contributions to world thought. 
KEN DYCHTWALD, PhD: Over three decades, Ken Dychtwald has emerged as North America’s foremost visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle, marketing and workforce implications of the “age wave.” He is a psychologist, gerontologist and author of 13 books on aging-related issues, including Bodymind, Age Wave, Age Power: How the 21st Century will be Ruled by the New Old, and With Purpose: Going From Success to Significance in Work and Life. His explorations and innovative solutions have catalyzed a broad spectrum of industry sectors from automotive design to health insurance. 
MICHAEL MURPHY is co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Board at Esalen Institute. He is the author of four novels including Golf in the Kingdom and The Kingdom of Shivas Irons. His nonfiction works include The Life We Are Given (with George Leonard), and The Future of the Body. During his 45-year involvement in the human potential movement, Murphy and his work have been profiled in The New Yorker and featured in magazines and journals worldwide. 
CHUNGLIANG AL HUANG is a highly regarded and internationally respected Tai Ji master and authority of East-West cultural synthesis, allowing students to first experience the joy of physical awareness and Tai Ji's natural principles, before engaging in its determinant components. He is the author and co-author of numerous books on Tai Ji, mind-body-spirit integration, and Taoism as it relates to business, performance and daily life, including the best-selling classic, Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain: The Essence of Tai Ji. He is a recipient of the Republic of China's Gold Medal of Education. 
DAVID DARLING is composer, cellist, and artistic director of Music For People. His latest album Prayer for Compassion won the Grammy for best new age album in 2010. An internationally acclaimed recording artist an educator for over 40 years, he has performed and recorded with artists such as Bobby McFerrin and Spyro Gyra in addition to putting out several solo and small ensemble albums as well as albums of his compositions. 
ERIC SCHLOSSER is an award-winning American journalist and author known for investigative journalism whose work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and The Nation. He is the author of Fast Food Nation, Reefer Madness and Chew On This and co-produced the film, Food, Inc. 
JEFFREY J. KRIPAL is an historian of religions by training. He holds the J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University. He is the author of Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion, and Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred. His areas of interest include the comparative erotics and ethics of mystical literature, American countercultural translations of Asian religious traditions, and the history of Western esotericism, particularly as this complex has encountered and incorporated Asian practices and ideas in the modern period. 
RICK TARNAS is a philosopher and cultural historian known for his 1991 book The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View and Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, published in 2006. Tarnas is professor of philosophy and psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is the founding director of its graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. 
ASHLEY SMITH JOHNSON was an aspiring VP of Marketing in Silicon Valley before stumbling across the Esalen Institute. Throwing caution to the wind, she quit her job and sold all her earthly possession to become a dishwasher in the Esalen kitchen. Adopting the true spirit of Joseph Campbell, she has followed her bliss to become a music and movement arts teacher, an adoring wife, a doting mother and Esalen auctioneer extraordinaire. 
Marianne Faithfull is regrettably unable to participate in Esalen's benefit
The Esalen Institute was founded in 1962 in Big Sur, California by Michael Murphy and Richard Price. Esalen is dedicated to exploring and realizing human potential through experience, education, and research.
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