Esalen Institute

Daily Updates From Gordon Wheeler

The following are daily updates from Gordon Wheeler, Esalen President and CEO during the Basin Complex Fire in Big Sur. For current status and updates, return to the main status page.

Friday, August 15, 2008

We’re in glorious high summer these days at Esalen, the air cool, the sun strong in a brilliant blue sky—alternating at times with the morning fog pulled in by the heat of the inland valleys. The gardens are swollen with flowers and bushy greenery (a sure sign that we weren't keeping up with harvesting the famous Esalen greens during the fires, for want of enough mouths to feed). There's even a roaring fire in the firepit on the lodge deck most nights (but with a firekeeper present only!) The fire is deeply cheering, a reassuring sign of normalcy—as well as welcome warmth in the evening chill (if you're a first-timer in Big Sur, you may not have been told that you'll always want a jacket or a sweatshirt in the evenings).

Looking around here on property, you almost might not even know that less than a thousand yards up over the first ridge begins the quarter million acre expanse of blackened hills left by the Basin/Indians fires, which blazed right up to South Coast Center, worked their way down Hot Springs Canyon to destroy our main water line, encircled our tanks, and threatened the main Esalen campus itself. A month ago at this time we were just emerging from weeks of closure, facing almost a million dollars in lost revenue for July, deep uncertainty about how soon folks would feel confident again about coming to Big Sur at all, plus a daunting cleanup of firegel, ash, and brush before we could even think of reopening.

But our worldwide Esalen community were having none of all that. From around the state and the country came volunteers, more than we could actually house and use, offering to fly or drive to Esalen for a week of hard scrubbing, sweeping, powerhosing and shining the campus. From Petaluma came our faithful band of July work scholars, who had simply refused to have their monthlong program canceled, and pursuing their study and their seva at IONS in Petaluma for two weeks, steady in the faith that Esalen would survive, reopen, and they would finish out their month here with us. From the core of a thousand or so Esalen teachers of the past few years came messages, checks, offers to donate their upcoming fees, and/or the use of their own lists and websites to help Esalen. From around the world came an outpouring of extra donations making up over half our lost revenues. And from all of you, our much-loved wider Esalen family, came phone and web reservations, filling the coming weeks to capacity in the first few days after our reopen date was announced.

Thus the mood and the watchword on campus these days is gratefulness. Gratefulness first of all to this land, the magic container that has anchored and sparked so many life transformations for so many of us over the years—to say nothing of the transformations of our shared culture that have been birthed and nurtured here at Esalen, in integral health, education, psychology, somatic practices, ecology and sustainability, spiritual studies, politics and global diplomacy, and more, still continuing and growing today.

Beyond that, gratefulness to the people: the 52 intrepid community volunteers who refused mandatory evacuation and stayed on here, braving ash and smoke and sometimes even flames in the canyon (plus the disapproving Sheriff) to ensure that the fire would have the least possible opening to jump the road and spark the natural bed of brush and low bushes that lined the highway (you'll notice all that is now cleaned out). Plus the 100 or so more who left us for the duration, to save water and generator fuel here, and held themselves fresh to relieve our exhausted crew and ready us for reopening as soon as conditions allowed.

Gratefulness, finally, to the life and heart of Esalen, which means you, the whole Esalen family—residential, itinerant, newbies and veterans, from across the continent and across the globe. One of the hallmarks of Esalen is our model of “seekers serving seekers.” All of us live here together for the time that we spend here—a day, a night, a week, a month, a year or more. All of us eat together, take classes and courses together, form bonds of friendship and networking that may last for years, and go on outside this magic setting. Esalen has a way of influencing people for their lifetimes (sometimes after a single visit, years ago—we hear that all the time); and these relationships that knit our community together, locally and globally, are part of the lifeblood of that influence.

Over and over these days—by phone, by email, in the lodge or crossing the garden, I hear the words, “thank you all for taking care of this place, which has changed my life. Esalen has to survive and go on, today more than ever.” All of us here at Esalen today return those thanks gratefully to you. You are our reason for being here—as well as the key to what makes Esalen possible.

Hearing those words of thanks and encouragement, our thoughts here go to the looming winter ahead. Fire of this magnitude means the loss of all ground cover for some 500 square miles directly above us—inevitably meaning slides, floods, likely road closings later this winter, once the rains come. If we are to sustain Esalen—not just the public programs but the Work Scholar and ES internships, the pioneering initiatives of the Center for Theory and Practice, the Gazebo preschool, the Farm and Garden (all of which are donor-subsidized), to say nothing of the leadership investments in Sustainable building and energy conversion that are actively going forward here on campus,—we will continue to be dependent on your generosity and support. Thank you, and see you soon at Esalen.

In deep gratefulness—to Esalen and to you,

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

P.S. A great way to support Esalen this season, while rubbing shoulders with some of the most remarkable teachers (and participants) on the planet, is to sign up for our annual Donor Weekend, this coming November 7-9. Entitled “The Way Forward” and falling right after the crucial fall elections, this intimate think-tank gathering will feature renowned and pioneering thinkers and cultural leaders like Amory Lovins, Robert Reich, Sam Keen, of course Michael Murphy, and many more. Join us for yet another of these exciting events! See the web site or contact Nancy Worcester 831-667-3032 for more details.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Post-fire Conditions

Esalen is back up and humming and fully booked these first few course periods after our July 18 reopening—thanks to you, the worldwide Esalen Community who have joined with our core staff here to make this possible: you the volunteers who poured in to clean and scrub and join the professionals who were steam-cleaning the property; you the munificent donors who have stepped up so handsomely already to help us get at least partly current with our accounts, deliveries on time, insurance paid up, salaries supported; and then you our dedicated seekers and seminarians who rushed to fill the cancelled reservations (or who had stubbornly, faithfully hung onto a reservation through weeks of uncertainty). Thanks to all of you Esalen feels like Esalen again, the property is gleaming, courses are full, and we’re mostly back to doing what we’re committed here to doing: joining our contribution to yours, toward creating better lives, and ultimately a better world.

All around us in Big Sur days are summery and cool now, skies are mostly sparkling bright with the occasional summer morning fog, while out on the road cars whiz by me on my early jog like any morning rush hour on Highway 1, mid-to-high tourist season (meaning a little clot of two or three cars every two or three minutes—that’s high-season rush hour in Big Sur). Except we know it’s not just any morning in July. Blackened hillsides are sobering as you drive up or down from the city—even if we know this is part of nature’s cycle, and those same hills will be lusher, greener than ever come spring. Behind that, we know that some people lost their homes in the fire, and it’s most often those primary homes (rather than the vacation homes) that may have been underinsured. Outside of Esalen, businesses are hurting just as we are, only without the support of a generous and loyal community; and often it’s the lowest tier employees, the ones least able to bounce back, who end up taking the greatest hit. All this makes us all the more grateful for Esalen’s survival, and for all of you.

And so gradually it’s back to normal at Esalen—remembering that “normal” around here means that—each 7-day period brings a couple of hundred of the world’s most stimulating, heartful, and deeply interesting teachers, students, and interns from all over that planet; that these seminarians and others join another hundred and more who live and work here, in a “seekers-serving-seekers” model, each of us (residents and guests) committed in our own way to our own service, our own path; we get to spend these days together in one of the most stunning, bracing, and enlivening environments on the planet; that the experiences, the explorations, the courses, the conferences, the initiatives that we co-create in our time together here work changes our own lives, and through us, go out to change the lives of others in that wider shared world—often in unexpected, culture-transforming ways.

That’s a pretty radical kind of “normal!” For each of us, every day, that transformation has to “start with me”—but it doesn’t end there. To me, that’s always been the signature of Esalen, the deepest heart of the Esalen intention and message: the idea that personal transformation and social transformation are one and the same—they can never be meaningfully separated. If I work on myself just for myself, what’s the point? And if I try to work “on” the world while leaving myself out of that equation—well, just who or what will be the vehicle of the change I’d like to see? how is that going to work? To be real, the change has to be integral. It has to include you, and it has to include me.

And so we aspire to live the change, right here at Esalen, in living community, that we espouse and invite teachers from around the world to come here and create and explore, and students from around the world to experiment with and absorb. And of course we fall short of that aspiration nearly every day! Nearly—but not every day. Not every hour. Sometimes we do live that change, right here together. Sometimes it all comes together, and feels like those magic days and hours when the larger emergency made us feel like one body, one mind, a single focus and a single concern of taking care of every single one of us, and those things we all held as infinitely precious: life, and each other, and Esalen itself.

Now how do we translate that into “normal” living? We all live in a deeper shared emergency now, right here on our shared, fragile planet. What transformations does each of us require, hunger for—in body, mind, spirit, heart, and community—to meet that wider emergency? We don’t know! But we’re committed to figuring that out—together. Come to Esalen and join us in the adventure. And when you come, bring your unique piece of the questions, your piece of the answers, your piece of the issues and the struggle and the work. And then take it back out again, taking some shared piece of Esalen with you on your journey.

See you soon at Esalen! Gratefully, and with the energy of your support, Gordon Wheeler.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

And a note: if ever you've considered a weekend at Esalen’s Annual Fundraising Weekend (November 7-9, 2008), this would be a great year to make that a reality. We’ll be getting together right after the elections, in the intimate company of a roster of wisdom leaders including Robert Reich, Amory Lovins, Sam Keen, and many many others. We all know that however the elections come out, the task of rebuilding, healing, and nurturing our shared planet looms ahead for our troubled society and even more troubled world. It’s not hyperbole to say that the challenges facing us today and tomorrow (economic injustice, environment, health, cultural disruption, and then the inevitable result of all of them—war) are the greatest our young species has ever faced, in its still-new two-million year history. We know too that the task begins with imagining together the world we want and need to co-create. Join us in another chapter of the unfolding adventure. See you there!

Call or email Nancy Worcester at 831 667-3032, or visit www.esalen.org/benefit/ to find out more and sign-up.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Getting Ready for Reopening Day at Esalen

The Esalen campus is audibly humming these past few days, first of all with the returning staff and volunteers that have joined our numbers each day, pitching in with the massive effort of readying this property, in just a few days, for our big day Friday, when we open our gate and our in-house community again at last to teachers, seminarians, and other long-deferred personal. It looks now like there will not be an open bed anywhere on property this weekend or next week, as our beloved wider-world community shows its support for Esalen by flooding the phone lines with bookings, helping us get back on our feet financially and back to our full purpose in being here: sharing the magic of Esalen with students and and teachers and other seekers from around the world.

Especially stirring this week has been the welcoming of a dozen stalwart survivors of our July Work Scholar month, which began three weeks ago with cancellation of that unique program for the July cycle, evolved into a temporary program for those interns who had come a long distance and had nowhere else to go for the month—and finally, through the generosity of our sister Institute IONS in Petaluma (and the creative dedication of the program faculty Eric Moya, Mary Anne Will, Patrick Douce, Program Director Cheryl Fraenzl, and the participants themselves), became a self-generating community up in Petaluma that simply refused to disperse, even when we at Esalen gave up hope of being able to reopen to them before month’s end. Said one European participant at a welcoming reception yesterday at South Point House, “I just kept telling the others, No fire can last four weeks! We will make it to Esalen, before we go home!” And they did! (though I have to say, the combined Basin/Indians Fire, the amalgam of four or five separate fires and now well over 200,000 acres, is actually in about its 8th week and still burning—but mercifully not in our area).

I put it to the managers last week, to decide whether they could actually accommodate this partial contingent of new interns in mid month. Would the orientation and training of new intern crew members for such a short stay simply be an impossible burden, on top of all the chaotic scheduling, volunteer training, and extra workload of getting Esalen up and open against so many odds? Their answer came without a moment’s hesitation: “We don’t care how much trouble it is. We want our Work Scholars, and we’ll make it work!” That settled it for me.

And adding to the hum of ever more people—the hellos across the garden or the oval, the laughter and tears, the growing numbers in the lodge and the community meetings each morning as we welcome the new arrivals,—is the buzz of power hoses and power cleaners, splashing down and steaming out every roof, every window, every carpet and floor, every walkway and cobwebby, ash-filled bank of shrubbery at Esalen. (Who knew there were so many cobwebs in the bushes—being filled with ashes really makes a cobweb stand out). Every meeting room and every seminarian room has now been steamed, swamped, and blow-dried; and now it’s on to the staff and intern rooms. Hardest of all will be South Coast, where most of the Esalen staff live, and where the fireproofing gel just keeps on coming out of the walls and decks and walkways, recreating a hazard with every new rinse-down. (Fortunately the stuff is non-toxic, so slipping is the main problem up there. Even more fortunately, the water tanks were the only things we had to gel here on the main campus.)

Morning community meetings are now less and less about the fire news and crew work assignments each day, and more about the reintegration of our community, as we shift out of crisis mode and into the regular routine (and often a bit of drama behind the scenes) of staging and hosting up to a dozen different programs, 200+ guests, and over 5000 meals in each 7-day period at Esalen, right through the year.

We know—because you tell us—that the unique dynamic of a being part of a community of students, joining and interacting with a resident community of staff and interns, is an essential dimension of most people’s experience of Esalen. This is all part of what makes a visit or a course at Esalen so impactful, often life-changing, for thousands each year. Our staff and our guests (and our teachers) all live on the same magic land while we’re here, eat the same meals in the same shared lodge, and meet and form powerful bonds—in courses, over meals, at the baths and elsewhere. Often these connections transcend the situation and become powerful, long-lasting relationships. (I should know—I first came to Esalen to a Mariah Fenton-Gladdis workshop in 1995, guested by a friend; was brought back in 97 to work with the staff, met longtime Program Director Nancy Lunney, and began coming back ostensibly to offer workshops, but really to be with Nancy. We’ll celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary this December.)

Those of us who live here live in service to that transformational experience (shared, yet unique)—yours when you visit, and also our own and each other’s, as we combine living, working, seeking to claim and hold that deep experience of being more alive that brings us all to this magic place on the edge of a continent, exposed as we are to all the elemental forces we see and feel around us. Fire, water, storms, slides—the drama of the liminal zone, where land pushes up from sea, each in living creative tension with the other: that’s the dynamic environment that draws us here, wakes us up, brings us to our own edge.

So how does a resident community sustain that aliveness, care for itself over time, remain fresh and diverse and open, and still stay grounded in enough shared intentionality to be able to offer and support a transformational experience to so many others, month by month, year by year? And do it in a wider culture that knows little, as we know, about building and sustaining rich, diverse, creative and caring community life? What is that shared intentionality anyway? And how might we support it and communicate it to others?

“Unity in diversity,” says a line of Esalen’s Vision and Mission statement. But this deceptively simple tag stands for a rich complexity, and begs the question of how we get there, and then how any of us sustain it or regain it in the course of living. Note that either term without the other is way simpler. Unity without diversity—following a single program, a single guru, a single fundamentalism or ideology—is a simple thing. Those who get disaffected simply peel off and move on (or get extruded), while those left behind keep maintain a single, comfortable focus. Difference is handled by exclusion—sometimes violent exclusion.

Diversity too is no problem to achieve by itself, as long as you’re not looking at the same time for unity. Of course, diversity without unity is unstable, conflictual, often uncreative, ultimately unnourishing or even violently destructive. Just look at the world today, whole cultures talking past each other, or worse, instead of engaging with what unites us. And all of us spewing the off-gas of fossil fuel, and all of us armed to the teeth.

Meanwhile, Esalen is a community vital and united enough to produce some 50 souls able and willing to simply refuse to leave when ordered out by the sheriff, so as to preserve this place for all of us; —plus another hundred or more also willing (many of them with great stress and self-sacrifice) to go off-site for the duration so as to be able to come back fresh when the crisis was over, relieve the exhausted stay-at-homes, and get us all ready to reopen and back to our larger purpose in being here—which is welcoming all of you, our wider community.

How do we do that? How do we go from the single-focus, crisis mentality of a small group in a heightened state of being—to daily life of long-term projects and goals, complexity, and the richness (and sometimes conflict) of our individual differences? How do we make “unity in diversity” a living reality, over time—and not just abstractly, in beliefs and cultural origins, but concretely, in daily living and working?

It’s not as if we have the answers! What we do have are the questions, and some commitment to live our way together, toward new solutions. When you come to Esalen you’re inevitably part of that great experiment—our own local version of the larger challenge facing our shared world today.

Meanwhile, Esalen has never looked fresher, cleaner, brighter, the garden more bursting with greenery and flowers, the serving tables more rich with sights and flavors and smells. Is this just the result of all the scrubbing and polishing, or is part of it also fresh eyes—plus the trace of that glow left by the dedicated intention of a core who stayed to save this magic island, and those who returned early to wash it new for us all. Join us here on campus soon to decide for yourself.

Once again, deep thanks to all who stayed, all who held themselves ready to come back, all of you who have followed all the bulletins and poured out your messages of love and support, your bookings in the face of uncertainty, your incredibly generous checks and pledges to get us back on track with our mission renewal, our creation together of a model sustainability campus (meaning livable human systems in a living, sustainable environment)—over $350,000 to date, and still coming in. All this generosity means that we can renew and sustain our own commitment and momentum toward these crucial goals, the crucial experiment that is Esalen. Thank you, and see you soon at Esalen!

In love and renewal, Gordon Wheeler.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Fire News, and the Big Push Toward Reopening July 18!

The mood on property today is cautious elation, as we watch the restrictions in the area and in our systems being lifted, one by one—and simultaneously deal with “hot spots,” the recurrent smoke and smoldering flare-ups that continue to crop up, on the property here and up and down the coast. In the midst of a planning meeting for reintegrating staff and clean-up volunteers comes a radio call to reset the sprinklers at the water tanks, as fire is active again in the Canyon.

Meanwhile the firefighters continue to pull out of the area, in favor of more pressing ongoing battles at the north and south ends of the Basin/Indians Fire (now over 200,000 acres), plus the several hundred blazes reported large and small around the state, and then on through other parts of the country. Yesterday as a smoldering plume spot fanned itself into flame and began to move toward the “boneyard” at South Coast, there was no response at all on the Fire Brigade’s radio hook-in to the Fire Command. While a team kept tabs on the blaze on site, Eric and Montgomery hopped in separate trucks and headed north and south on the road in search of any Division Chief. Ultimately they found one, and a small team arrived and dealt with the situation.

North and south, the wider fire continues to jump lines and resist containment. A long “finger” has pushed southwards across the Dolan Creek barrier several miles to the southeast of us; word is that that is being contained. Up north and east, Tassajara Hot Springs looks to have been saved (thanks to the efforts of a dedicated band of five, we hear, who stayed and kept the sprinklers set; only some outbuildings were lost to the encircling blaze). At the same time, the northern end of the fire continues to threaten Carmel Valley itself, and a new firebreak is being cleared at Los Padres Dam, at the head of a gateway canyon into the Valley.

The Scene at Esalen

Here on the campus, if it weren’t for the unnatural absence of people this early morning, you’d almost never know anything unusual had happened—much less that it’s all still going on. The morning sky is clear and bright, no trace of smoke in the air. Beyond the cliffs the sea is in its rolling molten glass mood, an unaccustomed shade of deep Mediterranean blue. A blessed quiet hangs over the land: it took me a moment to pin that to the absence of generators whirring (meaning that PG&E came back on in our area last night—for now).

It’s a moment for taking a deep breath (of actually breathable air), as some of our exhausted crew are able to plan for a day off at last, while others still have to soldier on. A few more have left us, to meet long-deferred obligations, while volunteers are just beginning to arrive now, and our community-in-exile—hopefully rested and ready to go—make preparations to come home.

Which means a massive cleanup. First of all of South Coast, completely slimed on the outside with fireproofing foam, now dried but instantly ready to gel back up at the slightest drop of water, returning to a zero-friction state that Jake Hesse characterizes as “ball bearings on ice.” All that has to be power-hosed off just for staff to be able to access their rooms—and then done again, and apparently again and again (it just keeps coming out of the woodwork, literally, each time you re-wet it). And that’s just the outside.

Once that’s done, or done enough, then staff can move out of the seminarian rooms they’ve taken refuge in on property, while the fresh energy of volunteer crews is turned to cleaning those rooms, in preparation for our full reopening, July 18.

That’s right, July 18. That’s this coming Friday. Before us still lies the full week of power vacuuming, deep cleaning, hand scrubbing, watering the thirsty gardens and hosing down the walks, volunteer labor for many jobs, outside professional crews for others, and laundry, laundry, laundry. Even more important, there’s the welcoming back of our much-missed diaspora contingent, and the integrating of all of us back together as we share our stories, let down emotions we’ve had to hold in check, get some much-needed rest for some, see their much-missed homes and friends for others,—as together we become again the one living body that Esalen depends on to pump the water, grow and cook the food, man (and woman) the systems, take the reservations, clean the rooms and the baths, repair the buildings, groom the grounds, care for the finances, steward the program (this week’s and next year’s alike), and all the other myriad tasks, seen and unseen, that keep Esalen going and make the experience here what it is.

And the amazing thing is, all this will happen. Come next Friday—always barring fresh disaster, to be sure—we’ll be up and running and ready to welcome you, our real, far-flung Esalen community, this week and next week and the next, back to cocreating with you, and participating in together, the multidimensional experience that makes Esalen magical, and unique.

We live here on the edge. Isn’t that what all of us come and come back to Esalen for—for a day, a week, a year or more? To live for a time on our own edge, in the company of fellow seekers, pushing or relaxing our way into new forms, new combinations, new modes of being that we know are just out there, just beyond or ordinary everyday reach, waiting to be imagined and then realized, to change our world?

It seems to me I used to say, years ago: it’s not about survival, it’s about transformation. Now survival and transformation are the same thing, for each of us in some sense, and then directly, urgently in our shared, threatened world.

Welcome to the ongoing adventure. Welcome home, wherever you are, whenever you can get here, to Esalen.

With renewed joy and gratitude, Gordon.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Word from the fire command this morning is that they are “done setting fires on Highway 1” as of today—meaning that even though fuel still remains in the canyons and along the road in our area (and spot fires still persist up the upper canyons and down toward Dolan Ridge), they are essentially pulling out from the southwest perimeter of the Basin Fire, leaving only a bare number here, in favor of a big push on the northern, more active end to try to keep the fire out of Carmel Valley.

For us at Esalen this means the active danger level has ratcheted down considerably—and yet it’s not all over yet. Our tanks survived another night, with 20 professional crew members working there till around midnight, clearing even further below the tanks and waterline in the area of yesterday’s burn, improving the firebreak under the bridge, and putting out spots in the lower canyon. This is another switch in their strategy, as they have now given up hope of achieving a complete burn in Hot Springs Canyon and right along Highway 1 under these recurrent marine layer conditions. Instead, they are apparently prepared to call a partial victory and move to more urgent concerns to the north (and elsewhere in the state).

Which leaves us with a vastly improved situation—and also with fire still in the canyon, perhaps half a mile back now, plus smoke still coming out of Lime Creek to the south and from the Hudson Ranch area just beyond that. Our last vision of “controlled burning,” for now, was a memorable one: a single professional firefighter in yellow, backing calmly down a hillside in flames around him, a gushing fire-hose in one hand and an active flamethrower in the other, squirting fire onto the hillside to his left as he went, all the while damping down the flames above him and in the trees around the waterline with the hose in his other hand. Above that, lost in the smoke, the platform and the tanks were safely (as it turned out) gelled and intact, water still flowing in the morning.

Esalen First Responders on the Bridge

Our own guys by this time were safely down on the highway and the bridge, eyes riveted upward to where they’d been sprinkling and gelling just moments before. Said one of our crew down on the bridge: “Fifteen minutes sooner and we wouldn’t have been done.” Replied Eric, “actually I’d like to have had that extra fifteen minutes.” And then Josh, lately of Grounds but these days a full-time First Responder: “I don’t know, I think we could have kept working up there another five or ten minutes, at least, if they’d let us.” My eyes looked for Harry’s, so as to communicate silently, “Not on our watch, they couldn’t.” Harry was on the radio command from the bridge the whole time, supervising the safety and communicating with Eric up top, and neither of them the least bit inclined to allow our guys to risk cutting it the least bit close, just because there’s always one more thing you could have done.

Today will be given over here to a final push to clear and further protect the last stretch of waterline from tanks to highway—while remaining on the alert for warm-ups and flare-ups in all the areas where fuel still remains. We can still see the active smoldering well up the canyon; so while we’re breathing a shallow sigh of relief (no deep breathing under these air conditions), we’re still in a state of vigilance here, in case of a change yet in the weather conditions that would bring the active fire down again in contact with the brush still left in the canyon floor.

Meanwhile the “hard close” of the mandatory evacuation order has been lifted today, up and down the coast, in favor of a return to a “residents only” restriction—for now anyway. So while we’re still far from being anywhere near reopening to guests, we can begin to think of allowing our staff back in to relieve the over-fatigued team here and start the exhaustive process of cleanup, repair, restoration of damaged systems, and general scrub-down that will have to precede a full reopening.

Still in the way of that process: cleaning the gel and ash off and out of South Coast, so our staff (here and in exile) can move back into their homes—thus freeing up the seminarian rooms here on the main campus for the requisite deep cleaning there! And in the midst of that, finding a fairly clean space for the numerous volunteers—past staff, former interns, seminarians and others—who are eager to come down and pitch in in this time of need for Esalen. (And note that a significant chunk of this work of restoration and repair will necessarily have to be done by paid professional teams.)

In other words—your contributions continue to be counted on, needed, appreciated, and received with gratefulness!

Our 9 am Community Meeting

This morning’s daily community gathering was a particularly emotional one, as some 45 of us looked at each other, blinked, and realized together that we are (almost) certain we have come through this thing—no matter how much labor and creativity still wait for us on the other side of the immediate danger. Each day of the past five or six we’ve said goodbye to one or two more of our tight, dedicated team—whether through medical need or because of a previous commitment that could no longer be deferred, once they felt they’d done their part and we were probably going to make it through the worst of it. Among them day by day have been Mac Murphy (urgent medical needs), Dr. Geno, John Murphy, neighbor and counselor Richard Glantz, and this morning our incomparable First Responder, Art Barn Coordinator, and longtime chef extraordinaire Bill Herr, plus others. Each has been invaluable—each will be missed and welcomed back with a new embrace.

Left to Right: Mick Walsh, Leo Foster Jr, Josh Dapkus

Special, tearful thanks went to our whole First Responder team (including Carl, Ken, Josh, Tony, Mick, Bruce, all of whom I think I may have forgotten to mention in yesterday’s update, and there may be more—plus the incomparable Montgomery London)—who have brought us through safe and nearly intact, and who came down literally out of the flames yesterday afternoon, having secured the water tanks and line yet again, before handing the job over to the professionals for the night. Our electrical wizard Bryan Scott again, and our computer wizard Jeremy Taylor, who both contrive again and again to get us up again each time another system goes down. Our plumbing maven Robert Dayap, whom our professional firefighter guests (some of whom are following these postings) want me to tell you is also now an honorary member of their squad, and has been named Mayor of South Coast as well, by spontaneous proclamation. And Eric, our Incident Command Chief (closely seconded by Wade and Montgomery). And I could go on and on.

Our Own Montgomery London

Again and again these past days I’ve had occasion to say that behind all this it’s Harry Feinberg, Executive Director of Operations, who sets the underlying tone, always calm, always listening and respectful, and always on top of what needs to happen next, and how to get that staged out and in motion. Today I have to add that at this point, it’s really every single person here, each one in a different role, but each in that shared spirit of dialogue and determination. Beyond that, all of us here are sustained by all of you out there, your messages of love and encouragement and concern, your news and ours, your generous commitments of all kinds.

We’re gearing up now for the return of our beloved community staff, who are the heart of Esalen. And then next after that, for the return of all of you, who are Esalen’s lifeblood, our reason for being here, and our vehicles for taking this spirit out into the world.

See you soon at Esalen! With gratefulness, Gordon.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Conditions Overnight and This Morning

The amazing achievement here last night was the saving—for now—of Esalen’s water tanks and filtration system, together with the crucial line from the tanks to the campus itself. Crews here—including Eric, Wade, Jake, Bryan, Thomas, Cory, Rob, Ken, Leo, Robert, Tony, with Harry pitching in as well—essentially everybody available (hopefully I’m not leaving out any name)—worked late past dinner last night, both down in the canyon floor and up at the tanks, rigging pumps, creating workarounds to increase water pressure, resetting sprinklers, and finally gelling tanks, systems and line before pulling back in the face of darkness and the encroaching fire.

During the night flames worked their way up the canyon right to the sprinkler-line about three feet below the filtration platform—and stopped there, while the gel functioned to protect from sparks and other encroachment. The clearing begun around the tanks by John Murphy and a dedicated team week before last, and much expanded now to bare dirt for some 30 feet below the tanks, played its crucial role as well. As fire continues to creep up and around the platform, tonight will be a new effort, with likely re-gelling, plus construction of a slide barrier with rebar and ply above the tanks.

This morning work went on constructing a protective housing for the waterline from the tanks down to the highway, with Harry manning the table saw ripping plywood, one crew driving it around on the road, and the rest of us shouldering it sheet by sheet on up to the tanks. Down below, the fire continues to advance steadily through the canyon, waiting for wind or falling humidity as the day goes on, to race back up the hill. Once all has been done that can be done, Eric and the team will pull everyone back out of there, and the rest will be back in the lap of the fire-gods (and goddesses) for another night.

Meanwhile we owe the preservation of our tanks and systems to the days and days of brush-clearing over the past two weeks, and then the incredible creativity of the jerry-rigging, improvising, creative technical team here, rolling with each punch and creating workarounds to restore each system as it fails.

I’ve told the team here that watching them makes me think of the movie (and the reality) Apollo 13, where as one thing failed after another, teams of engineers back on the ground were given the task of solving each new, unfolding problem—and solving it using only what the crew actually had on hand, right there on the ship. Esalen is a pretty big spacecraft, but the challenge is the same here: each new solution—pump, generator, hose, housing, coupling, adaptor, phones, T1, etc etc—has to be created out of just what’s on property at this moment, and nothing else. (Plus, the difference in our movie here is that our amazing team are playing both the astronauts themselves and the engineers backing them up, at the same time!)

Up north, as the blazes have moved toward resolution in Big Sur Valley, the mandatory evacuation has been relaxed on the road itself and the west side of the Highway, down as far as Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. From there south—which includes us—the “hard closing” remains in place.

No definite word on further backburning on the last highway stretch right around us. As always, everything depends on the weather. Despite warming at higher altitudes, conditions continue cool with slight fog here, meaning a steady, more manageable blaze in the canyon, till further notice.

Michael Krasny featured Esalen and Big Sur on his morning Forum show this morning on KQED, with much emphasis on Big Sur traditions, color, community, and creative legacy. As always, Michael did his usual fantastic job with the story, integrating the human, the business, and the visionary legacy of Esalen in particular. You can check that out on the KQED website if you missed it.

With fire now actually on the property itself in the Canyon, I’ll post further updates on the changing situation as it develops, and as anything significant changes.

With continuing prayers for the safety of our heroic team, and all in danger or distress, Gordon.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

Monday, July 7, 2008

Fire Along the East Side of Highway 1

Backfiring was going forward with difficulty all through the night last night up around Esalen’s South Coast Center, a mile north of the main campus back gate.

Firefighters at Esalen South Coast

The difficulty is the persistence of heavy night and morning fog conditions—the heaviest fog I can remember at Esalen in well over a year. This fog has protected coastal properties to the west of Highway 1 for the past two weeks now, since the lightning strikes of June 21 which set off this rash of fires across northern California. The same fog is frustrating firefighters now, who got a good burn going on the north side of Burns Creek Canyon earlier last night, but could only achieve a partial one on the south slope of the canyon around South Coast itself in the wee hours, as dampness settled into the brush cover. Even so, the flames around South Coast were dramatic.

Backfire Behind Esalen South Coast

[Please note that the pictures above and below are part of a carefully controlled burn, called a backburn, handled by significant numbers of firefighters. No damage to our South Coast center occurred as a result, and in fact, our facility is much safer now as a result.]

Backfires at Esalen on Highway 1

The problem with leaving an area partially backburned is that we know live fire is still there, smoldering in tree trunks and fallen logs, right next to unburned brush fuel which can spring back into flames whenever the humidity drops. Still, progress is being made—meaning that the last remaining strip of highway in our 13-mile sector that’s not essentially black on the eastern side of the road is the approximately three miles between South Coast and Dolan Ridge. Meanwhile we hear that Limekiln to the south is burning briskly, while last night we sat in the garden and watched soberly as heavy puffs of smoke came right over the ridge immediately across the road behind Garden View and Staff units (the units above and behind the Gate shack). So it’s here, it’s lying there directly across from us, just waiting for wind and dry weather to set forth again—sort of like Agamemnon and the Greeks, stuck on their Aegean island, waiting for a favorable wind for Troy, only we expect a much more favorable outcome!

 Esalen Kitchen Crew

[Editor's note. Pictured above, the Esalen Kitchen crew, left to right: Matt Glazer, Tailia Rotter, Sheila Sagert, Annie Wright, Susan Stillson, Bill Herr. Also working in the kitchen was Phillip Burrus. Thanks for turning out three gourmet meals a day through all this.]

These are the thoughts that come with a bit of cabin fever. Under these conditions everybody appreciates Jeremy’s Movie Nights on the (sort of) big screen in Huxley, with an apparently endless supply of popcorn pouring out of the mysterious depths and reserves of the Esalen kitchen. (Who knew we had so much good food on hand? Granted, Matt stocks for 325+ eaters, and we’re down to about 52). And while we’re on the subject, is this the place for a personal plea to Jeremy for some higher-brow movies? (Recent offering: Bad Boys—you may have missed it in the theater.) Granted, we all want a comfort flick, and expect to regress about 20 years. Trouble is, in my case that only brings me down to age 44.

Editor’s note from Jeremy—or, the benefit of being the guy updating the web site. Bad Boys was a renegade job and not an official J-Flix presentation. I have excellent taste in movies. See photo exhibit A, below. My selected flicks thus far have included Stranger Than Fiction, Superbad, Snatch, Juno, and (last night) The Bourne Ultimatum. Unfortunately, Ratatouille skipped too much and had to be cancelled.

Movie Nights in Huxley

This is the banter that keeps us in good spirits and flexible, while the serious business of keeping Esalen up and functioning and safe goes on. Water is now flowing into the tanks again from the new piping rigged direct from the creek, following really heroic concentration by an incredibly resourceful team including Wade, Robert, Bryan, Dave, Jake, and more, with Harry pitching in as well.

Esalen Water Repair Team

So we have that—at least until that outtake is overrun by the fire advancing down the canyon. Up at Rancho Rico, attempts to recharge the T1 transmitter batteries are currently frustrated by the absence of the right adaptor cable which would link our system to the neighbor’s generator; it may be that our own “Dr. Bill,” if he’s allowed this far down by the Sheriff to deliver medical supplies today, will be able to take the correct adaptor cord back up from here, and drop it off at RR. And Montgomery and Carl, two of our Esalen members of the Big Sur Fire Brigade, are off for some rest after a long night monitoring the backburn at South Coast.

South Coast, after a long night, is much safer now that at any time since the outbreak of fire, even if not yet completely out of the woods—literally, in this case. Only one home was lost on Dolan Rd up on the Hudson Ranch property, between here and the active backfires coming up from the south. And Perry Holloman reports today that he believes his house, up above South Coast, now has sufficient partial backburn around it to be safe. Tears and a round of applause went through our community meeting with this news this morning, as all of us have watched and supported Perry as he came and went up and down the hill, eating and mostly sleeping here, then leaving again for more fire-spotting and prepping up at their place each day. Our beloved Jorge in the kitchen was also saluted in meeting this morning, for his extra work helping Perry, Odille, Richard and Fiona and many other neighbors up and down the road protect and save their homes.

And all around us this very serious business of protecting people’s homes still goes on, with incredible dedication and courage on the part of the professionals, neighbors and volunteers, and in most cases the beleaguered homeowners themselves. Almost always so far they have been successful—but in 22 cases, sadly not. Most important—there has been no loss of life so far in this vast cataclysm.

Starman says (in my favorite quote from the Jeff Bridges sci-fi movie of that name) that human beings are very strange: “you’re at your best,” says the alien, “when things are at their worst.” As we come to what we believe are the last days and hours of this danger and this challenge, our first prayer is for everyone here and elsewhere to stay safe—and our second, that all of us make it our practice and our resolve, spiritually, personally, and in community, to carry over that clarity, that trust in each other, that dedication to common purpose, and most of all that basic generosity of spirit, beyond this crisis and into our lives, at Esalen and beyond.

With gratefulness for all your support, Gordon.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Conditions Here at Esalen

Things were fairly quiet around the campus Saturday—a little too quiet, after the failure late morning of our main generator. Phones were down as well while the switchover to backup generators went into effect. Meanwhile the T1 Internet line signal receptor remained up on this end, powered by its own small temporary generator over on the north side of the property—the only power still running on that side. Up at Rancho Rico 12 miles to the north, where our hi-speed signal is beamed from, power had failed as well, throwing us on battery backup there. This came on top of the long-term PG&E outage from the north (being assessed for repair time), the rupture the previous day of first our main waterline and then the secondary spring line, and littler things like the ongoing loss of surge protectors here as the generator surges stress the circuit-breakers, plus the harder clamping down on road closure through the area.

Meanwhile, Esalen and the Big Sur community continue to cope. Backup generators are on, while Bryan Scott is at work on repair resources for the main. Waterline has been hooked up from creek directly into the filtration system and storage tanks, to be powered by a pump once fire in the canyon is resolved. We continue to have some 65,000 gallons of water in reserve, plus creek and pool for firefighting backup if necessary. Generous neighbors at Rancho Rico have stepped forward to offer generator time in needed to keep our transmitter batteries there topped off. The pump system in the creek is being wired, to be ready for starting to refill tanks once conditions there permit.

This morning we’re told that the plan today calls for setting a backburn first from Anderson Canyon (about 3 miles to the north) down at least as far as South Coast, to clear out all the rest of the fuel east of the Highway. Firefighters are stationed at South Coast now, and also at Perry and Johanna Holloman’s above South Coast, with gelling of South Coast scheduled to start at around 11 this morning.

Later today, or at latest tomorrow, this backburn is expected to be extended south to join up with the Dolan Ridge firebreak. If all goes as planned, this backburn will include Hot Springs Canyon, with a heavy concentration of professionals stationed at the road, and our First Responders backing them up to cover sparks and coals traveling to this side of the highway. That’s the plan.

The rationale of the plan is to get all or close to all the burnable fuel out of the forest to the east of Highway 1 (protecting structures as they can), before the weather changes sometime tomorrow to much hotter, drier, windier conditions. Obviously the best time for a managed burn is now, while the marine layer still hangs over the coast, slowing things down and keeping them much more predictable.

Wider Fire Conditions

As you can read on various websites, the combined Indians and Basin Fire now totals over 150,000 acres, with 100% containment reported on the Indians side, but still only some 15% today on the Basin fire itself to the west. Our update officers here tell us things are quieter in Big Sur Valley after the dangers and property losses of the end of the week. Likewise up north in Palo Colorado Canyon, major resources are focused on continuing to contain the fire at Pico Blanco, redoubling the firebreak below that, and ensuring that the flames don’t cross into Cachagua Canyon which connects with Carmel Valley itself. Again, they want to see this containment strengthened, before a major change in the weather.

And they want to get the Highway 1 line resolved for good, if they can, today and tomorrow, all the way from Andrew Molera above Big Sur Village, down as far as Dolan Canyon two miles to the south of us here.

We definitely feel we’re in end game at last here at Esalen, with the big push today and tomorrow. We’ll post again later in the day, to let you know how all this is going.

With prayers for our neighbors, and gratefulness to all our friends, here and around the world, Gordon.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

Friday, July 4, 2008

Fire Conditions

The big fire activity yesterday and today continues to be up in the Big Sur Valley—the area roughly from Ventana to River Inn, with active burning at or close to the highway on the east side, the loss of an additional number of homes, and repeated informal reports of the fire jumping the highway to the west side (none of these officially confirmed, as of this morning—as far as we know, the fire in the Big Sur Village are has still been contained east of Highway 1).

Here at Esalen fire continues to creep down Hot Springs Canyon, still held partly in check by the daily marine layer period, still about half a mile from the Highway 1. At Buck Creek (between the main campus and South Coast Center) by contrast, fire this afternoon is just about down to the road, with two tanker trucks waiting on the bridge, at last report, to start a hosing operation. Burns Creek Canyon very quiet around South Coast Center, but Anderson Canyon on the road north of that very active, with fire again reported down to the highway.

Conditions at Esalen

Here on the Esalen property as of about 4 pm yesterday we had pressure readings indicating that we had lost our main water line, which runs from the main creek source through exposed PVC piping which lies right in the now-active Canyon fire zone. We do still have a smaller, secondary line running from Porter’s Spring, about three quarters of the way up Hot Springs Canyon toward the main source location. This line runs through galvanized pipe which survived the Rat Creek Fire of 85, and presumably will survive again. This smaller line runs at about 13-15 gallons per minute, which works out to some 2000 gallons a day— enough to run Esalen on even at full capacity, with moderate conservation and without any irrigation.

Beyond that we have the 80,000 gallons stored in our regular water tanks, which we are careful to keep topped off for firefighting reserve. The plan is to foam these tanks and the plastic piping around them, if and as the fire gets down to that point.

And then of course there’s Hot Springs Creek itself—plus the Pacific Ocean, which is the reservoir for the firefighting helicopters, which refill directly from the open water through a long dangling proboscis. That’s when they’re here—we haven’t seen one of those for days, as the center of urgent operations keeps moving to other zones, first north to Palo Colorado, then south to the Dolan Ridge area, and now north again to Big Sur Valley.

This morning, with cool moist conditions and no wind, Wade Jones, Dave Nelson, and I—backed up by two radio spotters—set out to walk the main waterline up the Canyon, hoping to locate the break for possible repair. We left one spotter on the bridge, and the second, for radio relay, stationed under a rock overhang for safety, in case of anything coming down from above.

Esalen Hot Springs Canyon Walk

As far as Porter’s Springs, around half a mile in, we could see only the occasional smoke plume up the hillside above us, indicating an active spot. After that we began to see flames above us, up the canyon slopes, crackling briskly but not advancing noticeably—rather like a campfire that just sort of goes on and on as far as you can see. At around 100 yards below the source we encountered the irregular fire perimeter itself, still just low flames or embers on both sides of the path, here and there deep into tree stumps or fallen logs or burned-out trunks. With no air stirring, we still had no sense of any immediate menace, or anything we couldn’t easily get back through.

Rounding a corner, we found ourselves in active slide territory, deep loose dirt and ash in place of the path, with the fire active on the hillside above us. At that point the danger is not so much the flames as the threat of trunks or rocks coming down on you from above, as they plainly had been doing there for the past day or two. At this point there was no more question of what had happened to the line, nor did our hard hats feel like much protection, so we turned and headed back down through the embers. Even if we found the break, we’d never let anyone repair it under those conditions; and even if we did repair it, it would only break again in the next slide down.

Esalen Hot Springs Canyon Fires

For now, we keep the reserve tanks topped off with the two inch galvanized line, while that lasts, and will live comfortably off the overflow till further notice.

Esalen Community

Meanwhile, in addition to our amazing “left behind” crew here on property, we have another 75 or more primary community members scattered out across the state and beyond, many lodged with Esalen friends and generous wider Esalen community out there in the world. As you can read in Harry’s open letter to staff, up through July 6 Esalen has carried all its regular staff (including extended students and regular hourlies) at full salary, whether on property or out in diaspora, to ease their temporary transition through the disruption of the closing and give them time to get located.

From July 6 on up through July 15, as Harry outlines in detail, we will continue to carry all our regular staff, on these principles: If you can work for Esalen during this time (on property obviously, but also off-property if feasible—this you work out with your manager), then Esalen will still carry your salary in full. If you’re off-property and your manager cannot assign you any needed task for Esalen that you can perform from where you are (or this task is only part-time), then you have the option of volunteering at any local non-profit, wherever you are, full or part-time—and then you will still draw your regular Esalen salary, for whatever percentage of the work week you choose to do this.

And then of course there’s always the option of taking paid vacation or leave without pay at this time—again by arrangement with your manager.

The volunteer work component of this will be on an honor system—just tell us what you’re doing, and Pat Wyatt and Barbara Cohen will enter it appropriately into payroll for the 15th. We’ll be asking people who volunteer at other agencies and non-profits for the duration to give us some written narrative of their experiences there, so that Jeremy Taylor can collect those stories, possibly posting or blogging some or all of them so the whole community can know where Esalen is reaching out and having a community impact during this time.

In this way we mean to support our beloved staff wherever they are in this challenging time; to honor and give equity to all those who are able to work for Esalen, from wherever they find themselves; and then to send our greatest Esalen gift—our human resources—out into our wider community where they can all be supported to contribute wherever they are. Again, for details read Harry’s open letter; for further questions contact Pat Wyatt.

Interdependence Day at Esalen

That’s it for now. We’re taking the evening off to celebrate July 4 at Esalen—not with the 500-600 we were originally expecting at the party, but still with a festive spirit, and in the company of 15 or 20 intrepid locals who are able to get here on foot (or who choose to commit a misdemeanor—the highway ban is still in force out there). We’ll be celebrating each other, Esalen, our much-missed fellow staff/ community in diaspora, the Cycle of Nature in the wilderness—and all of you, our beloved wider Esalen community, who have been reaching out so generously with messages of support and encouragement, offers of housing and dinner, meetings for Esalen-in-exile in your area, to say nothing of your generous cash donations that will help us meet this challenging period!

We know that this date marks an epochal moment in human history and evolution: the day when a group of privileged, flawed citizens of an elite male caste of property-owners, got together 232 years ago to reach beyond themselves and their narrow interest, to pledge their lives to something unique and new in human affairs. That new thing was a solemn Declaration that every one of us—each precious human individual spirit—has the individual and collective right to construct our own destiny, politically and personally, through the free exercise of our own human judgment, in dialogue with our fellow citizens.

We know how imperfect that document was, in reality at the time and still today. Where it spoke of liberty, there were several millions enslaved; where it spoke of “mankind,” women had no legal voice at all—nor was the ballot available to non property-owners at the time. Where one of the major grievances against the English monarch was the fomenting of war and strife between settlers and the Indian nations, the next century and more would see an extirpation of native rights, territory, and culture. And where the document referenced the world community—"a decent respect for the opinions of mankind"—that value of communal, mutual respect and dialogue among nations seems completely flaunted or forgotten by our government today.

And yet—and yet the power of intention, as our “third founder” George Leonard has always taught us—transcends the imperfection of the moment, the situation, or the maker. That intention was a new form, a new template in the world—and it has inspired literally scores of revolutions in aspiration toward human liberty, over nearly two and a half centuries and still today. We may have lost our way as a nation in some important ways in the years since. But we’ve also found the way, and continue to find the way, to the evolutionary unfolding of that human creative spark—the involution of spirit into manifestation—that Jefferson, our brilliant and flawed founder, caught sight of and conveyed in those words we still celebrate.

In the same way, each of us can be a vehicle for the evolution of spirit, the opening up of human potential which is what each of us is here on this earth for—and what Esalen is all about.

All of us here join all of you out there in renewed resolve, in challenging times, to make that spirit a reality in our shared world.

With hope and inspiration, Gordon.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Fire Conditions Here

Last night we went to bed after watching from the bridge as flames made their way down Hot Springs Canyon—still over a half mile away, roughly near our water source. Fog rolled in and the fire banked down around 2 a.m., at which point a strong glow in the sky from the southeast told us that the backfires from Dolan Ridge, two miles to the south of Esalen, had been lit and were doing their job.

This morning we woke to somewhat worsened smoke conditions, and the sun fiery red in a brownish sky—as well as the news that the fire had jumped the firebreak at Dolan, but had been contained by emergency firefighter teams to the south. At last report, the southern perimeter Dolan line is holding—and sending the fire this way.

We’re also told that mandatory evacuation has now been extended all the way north to Palo Colorado Canyon, and on both sides of the road now, as fire comes down behind Ventana and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. We’re further told that fire above that point has jumped the road to the west side in places, up in the heavily forested valley of the Big Sur Village area. Several more homes have now been lost in that area as well. Esalen community members Carolyn Shearer and Eduardo Eizner have now been evacuated from that sector with their family; we’re told that Sydney and Steve Beck and also Steve Harper are declining evacuation so far and staying at their properties.

Up above the marine layer a northwest wind has picked up and was reported gusting in the 20-35 mph range last night, meaning that the fire is active and on the move in our direction. At the same time through the morning a small offshore turnaround breeze very locally here has still slowed the advance down Hot Springs Canyon.

Last night an overnight detail was actually stationed here on the main property, due to predictions of a Santa Ana wind (strongly out of the hot East) after midnight, which is the one thing that could conceivably drive a real firestorm down the canyon. That however failed to develop, and things quieted down. Fire is still quite active, though slow, in Hot Springs Canyon, but much damped down in Buck Creek and Burns Creek (South Coast) Canyons just to the north.

Our Professional Firefighter Guests

An interesting evolution of support, bureaucracy, and workarounds. I’ve written before about the fine crew we’ve had staying at South Coast Center, taking breakfast and lunch with us, and availing themselves of our shower and laundry conditions—as well as the bond of appreciation and respect developing in both directions between crew and community here.

Well, beginning two nights ago we were informed that the crew would be pulled out of South Coast,—not for strategic reasons but for possible violation of the “no gratuities” rules in their professional code. You can understand it if you think about it: public safety officials such as police and fire can’t accept anything, beyond a de minimis cup of coffee here and there, from any of the citizens they’re protecting, as obviously this could lead to the appearance or the reality of differential protection. Professional, arm’s-length relationships, that’s the code.

Of course that’s not Big Sur. On one level I’d hate to think what would happen to the homeowner in this neck of the woods who was known or thought to have secured differential protection from the public service firefighters—federal or volunteer local, either one! Let’s just say that their homes would be regarded as in ongoing danger.

But putting it positively, that’s just not how things work around here. Our fire brigade is voluntary, and nobody would dream of questioning their ethical code and standards. Neighbors help neighbors here. Everybody turns up to help the most exposed person—and then they go back to working on their own place. Of course you can’t explain that to the federal government.

Left to Right: Jerilyn Hesse, Thomas Varner, and Jake Hesse

The requirement, our firefighter guests told us, is that they pay a mandatory minimum rate of $84 per room per night, or stay in their trucks or tents, as provided. And this is out of their own pockets—no expense accounts, because they’re already provided with government-issue tents (and dinner rations). Same thing for dinner: they pay a certain minimum, or they’re not allowed to eat here.

The lodge felt empty two nights ago without our 22 guests—and then unexpectedly they showed up, to cheers and cries of welcome home. But their chief gave us his personal check for dinner. We can’t refuse the check, or we throw them into violation. (Mind you, these people are very well paid, and on a 24-hour-a-day basis for the season. But that extra money in many cases is what lifts them to a real living family wage, for their own lives and families somewhere back home. Not to mention that they’re putting their lives in danger to earn it.)

What we can do—strictly on a non quid-pro-quo basis—is to make it clear to them that we are sequestering this money, for as long as they’re here, and afterwards we will seek their counsel on where best to redirect that money, to an appropriate firefighting benefit fund or station.

Make no mistake: Esalen is facing a serious financial challenge due to our closing (now in force at least through July 11); and we will not be solving that challenge on the backs of our dedicated men and women of the firefighting services.

Last night we didn’t see them for dinner. Luckily Matt had been notified, and didn’t cook for them! Then later that night they turned up after all, having been burned out of their tent camp in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. Because it was an emergency evac for them, they weren’t required to pay for that one night.

This morning they brought another check for tonight, along with the news that their own Chief would be joining them tonight (with his check)—and that they would be staying with us again nightly for the duration (till their redeployment elsewhere, currently scheduled for Sunday). Same basis—we take the money, sequester it, and hold it for charitable redirection later.

Conditions Going Forward

The professionals were just here, informing us that conditions are sunnier and drier now (or would be sunnier, if not for the smoke), and we can expect more action today and tomorrow. Timing is right for us—property clearing will be finished sometime today. Meanwhile the professional crew here are “itching to fight fire,” in the words of their chief. Waiting is invaluable—and hard on the nerves.

Our greatest immediate threat is to our main waterline, coming down the Canyon. The fire is now quite active along that line. Our backup is first the 80,000 gallons we have stored in the tanks, which are kept topped off at all times so far—plus the creek itself, which we can pump out of if need be. Going forward, we also have a separate galvanized metal line fed by a separate spring source in the Canyon, yielding approximately 13 gallons per minute, which did survive the Rat Creek fire in 1985. This line will carry the human needs of the property even after reopening—though not the irrigation we normally conduct for crops and ornamentals this time of year. Creek water could also be run through the filtering system later on, if necessary in an extended outage.

We’re told we may lose phones any time today or going forward. We have a separate small generator on the Internet T1 line, to keep that up. We’re assessing today how long our propane and diesel fuel can carry us on property, if the mandatory closings persist beyond this week—and then whether Montgomery London of the Big Sur Fire Brigade can get permission to take our local fire vehicle down to the checkpoint and convoy a fuel delivery up here after that. (Already we’re hearing, “but we told those guys to leave—that’s what mandatory evacuation means.” But we’re working on locating a source or level that will give us a different answer).

For now, our gratitude goes to all who are stepping forward to support Esalen at this time of challenge. And our prayers for all those who are facing losses, here in Big Sur and as always, through our whole human family as well.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Conditions Here at Esalen

Yesterday evening we were visited by the Sheriff, bringing the notice of mandatory evacuation for everyone between Lime Kiln to the South, and Partington Ridge Road to the North. What that really means is that after 5 pm today, no more cars will be allowed in or out of the sealed, evacuated sector. Legally, anyone is free to decline mandatory evacuation. At the same time clearly, with a number of unguarded properties in the evacuated zone, the fire and security forces do not want to see any unmonitored traffic on the road—or any unofficial traffic at all that might interfere with the firefighters’ equipment.

Esalen Mandatory Evacuation

This means a special challenge for us in getting back and forth as needed between the main campus and South Coast Center, which we are defending and which continues to be the housing base for some 22 firefighters from our Highway 1 western defense perimeter team. Eric Erickson is working on arrangements for that essential link, through our own Big Sur Fire Brigade members, who are of course mobilized and integrated into the wider firefighting effort.

Esalen’s business closing has now been extended up to July 11. Reservations already booked for the July 6-11 period will be notified today, and will be entitled to full refund. At the same time, all those affected will be invited to consider either accepting a credit or turning all or part of their deposit into a donation in lieu of refund, to support Esalen in this crisis period.

Reservations will continue to be accepted now for workshops beginning July 11 and beyond. For any change or extension to that “closed-till” date, check the website daily, as well as these updates. In the event of any further cancellations beyond that date, of course everyone holding those advance bookings will be contacted personally, in addition to the web postings.

Our projected gross revenue loss up through the current July 11 closing date now stands at well over $500,000. Our management planning team is meeting daily through this crisis, working on ways to mitigate and/or compensate that loss. Obviously the loss will continue to grow if and as our reopening date is postponed, and as our business is affected after the reopen date.

Esalen will reopen just as soon as we can feel confident of offering our guests safe conditions and safe air quality here on the ground.

Evacuation Issues

Meanwhile, we’re taking the steps today to further reduce our remaining staff here to the essential number needed to support our volunteer First Responder crew, as well as the professional firefighters staying with us here at South Coast. All other personnel are being required to leave at this time.

This leaves a core group of our 19 designated, trained First Responder teams, plus several backups, along with about an equal number of the rest of our core group who are in service and support to that team, to the property here, and to the professional firefighting unit we have staying up at South Coast, and taking their meals here with us.

Fire Engines Drive Down to the Oval

To be very clear: no one is being instructed or induced by Esalen to remain here on the property: up until “hard road closing” time of 5 pm all employees and others are free to go, still with full salary support up through this week at least. Of those requesting to remain, only those who have a place on the First Responder or the backup teams outlined above—approximately 48 people in all—will be given permission to remain, entirely at their own risk and volition. At the Sheriff’s instruction, each of us staying on property is required to sign a form for the Sheriff’s records, indicating that we have been informed that the area is sealed, and are voluntarily declining the evacuation order.

Fire & Weather Conditions

At this point weather conditions are fire conditions here on the coast, and vice versa. The long persistence of a heavy “inversion layer” of cool moist foggy air through much of each night and morning continues to mean very slow fire progress in our area—with this long respite time being used up and down the coast to prep and brush-clear properties, here and elsewhere. Folks driving north last night report very active flames now in Anderson Canyon, and to a lesser extent in Burns Creek and other canyons as well. Fire is expected to reach Perry and Johanna Holloman’s house up above South Coast probably today; Perry has done an amazing job clearing brush and prepping that property for defense, and last night had three of our South Coast firefighter detail sleeping up there last night (Johanna and Niko have left the area to stay with Chris Price in town, along with Maggie, Finnegan, and Jack Murphy as well—who may be heading on north to Santa Cruz to stay at our place there today). At breakfast this morning Perry informed us he is ready to foam the house, as soon as the firefighters tell him the moment is right (thanks again to Esalen neighbors and benefactors Richard Glantz and Fiona Pugliese for procuring a special delivery truckload of gel/foam up from San Diego, which they have shared widely around the community). That’s how it’s been, with neighbors helping neighbors, with labor, supplies, and a number dropping in here for lunch, dinner, shelter overnight, or a free massage. Esalen has kept its doors, beds, and meals open to all who need it in the neighborhood since the beginning of the emergency.

Up at our Esalen water tanks at the mouth of Hot Springs Canyon, John Murphy, together with Mac Murphy and a dedicated core team, have likewise done amazing work clearing out brush from around the tanks. (We lose Mac Murphy to town today, as he has to seek treatment for a severe poison oak infection, with swelling and other histamine reaction danger if left untreated at that level. Mac promises to be back as soon as the travel ban is lifted).

Yesterday they were joined by a dozen young men from the CDC (Correctional Facilities)—guys serving sentence-release or community service time for low-level convictions. Not as skilled and effective as our Esalen team or the professional firefighters (who clear brush in their down time), but a willing crew with a good spirit.

John Murphy and I had a good chat with their team captain up at the tanks, a solid middle-aged guy in a fire service uniform, with a straight-ahead attitude. We asked him how it was, supervising a CDC crew. “Never a dull moment,” was his answer. “Basically good guys, some have never held a job or showed up for work before. Every five minutes somebody needs a hug, a band-aid, or a disciplinary action.” John and I agreed it sounded like any regular group of young adult males to us.

Wider Fire Conditions

With a strong breeze out of the northwest for the past 24 or more hours, the main fire has been on the march again to the south, probably heading today to a current total of over 50,000 acres. This wind has slowed the advance in the north and gained much time for the firebreak crews up in Palo Colorado Canyon near Carmel, while delaying the firing off of the backfires down at Dolan Creek Ridge, two miles to the south of us (a defense line we’d been told had been abandoned, but is now active again). Latest word is that the fire is moving so strongly at high altitudes that those backfires at Dolan have now been set off from the top, even before the dozer work on the firebreak is completed at the bottom of the ridge, down on Highway 1. This is of course a dodgy business and a calculated risk on their part, thus the sudden mandatory evacuation order and area sealing, in case things get out of control.

All the crews tell us it’s one world down here under the marine layer, and another world entirely up above 1,500 or so feet. Hot, dry, windier, with fire active and on the move, while down here it continues just to send fingers down the canyons, here and there suddenly igniting and rushing back up the hill, only to probe slowly down again. (You learn a lot of things in the course of this—one of them being the axiom that absent a tailwind, fire creeps downhill, rushes uphill. This is because on an uphill slope, as heat from the flames rises, the fire front is preheating its fuel as it goes.)

With Dolan Ridge now fired off, and winds predicted to shift around and come out of the southwest, we now expect air quality to worsen severely. On the other hand, if they can hold that Dolan Ridge firebreak/backfire line, that will mean a much shorter overall duration for the wider fire.

The current strategy is to contain it with dozer firebreaks in the North, up near Pico Blanco at the top of Palo Colorado Canyon; join it to the (mostly burned over) Indians Fire of a couple of weeks ago to the East and Southeast; hold it if possible at the Dolan Ridge backfire to the South, and stop the fire at Highway 1 up and down the coast to the West. But to get it out of the hills, it first has to be allowed to burn down to Highway 1, defending and sparing as many structures as possible that lie on the east side of the highway. That’s what we’re waiting for now.

Firefighters at Dinner in the Lodge

As we wait, every night our 22 guest firefighters drag into dinner from the day in the brush, and the dining room erupts in cheers and applause. Matt Glazer and his kitchen crew are plainly outdoing themselves because these amazing guys are here (last night spareribs and chocolate mousse), and everybody cheers again when they drag off early to bed. Yesterday morning they told us when they came in that evening they would be wanting a group photo of themselves and the whole community here, out on the oval in front of their trucks. They say they’re simply overwhelmed by the warmth and reception here, and we’re hearing similar stories up and down the Big Sur coast. You know what the saying is around here—Big Sur is not just a place, it’s a state of mind. A lot of crusty individuals, according to tradition here—but when they do take you in, they take you in deep.

Esalen Community Celebrates Firefighters

In the wider community, with no other guests here, Esalen’s bounteous gardens have excess produce these days, which we’re selling locally where we can, while distributing most of it to shelters and firefighters that are set up down south of here. Each day Esalen’s Rachel Fann (mother of Jason and Robin, grandmother of several of our youngest community members), who is volunteering as a chef in a shelter to the south, stops by and fills her trunk with fresh vegetables for soup for lunch. It’s a harrowing time, for many more than for us so far, and a warm time too, as neighbors take care of neighbors, and often help each other keep up their spirits and prep and save their homes.

Anne Roemer Looking Mighty

For now, the fog has lifted, temperatures are up and moisture is down in the canyons. The sun would be out, but the sky is brown and hazy with smoke. This means the fire will likely come down the canyons more tonight. If so, these days of delay will see us infinitely better trained and better prepared to support the professionals and our own First Responders to deal with it.

Other Community News

A wrench for many of our Esalen community is saying goodbye today to their friends and family (or near-family) here and heading on up the hill toward town, in advance of the sealing of the road at 5 pm. We’re emphasizing that for everyone, it’s not a matter of staying and serving Esalen, or leaving that service. Esalen needs all its community (and all of you, our essential wider community and Esalen family), here and elsewhere—this week, next week, and on into the future. No one serves by putting their own health at risk; in case of any physical distress, or just because you’re not essential right now on property, then you serve best by taking care of your own health and energy, so as to come back fresh next week (or the next), when we’ll need all our friends and family with fresh energy, more than ever.

To all our friends out there, thanks for your well-wishes and support. We’ll be in touch. Regards to all, and prayers for the safety and care of all in distress or danger.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Conditions on the Ground Here

The last two days of cool, moist conditions have meant that the fire in our area has continued only to creep down the canyons. With clearing skies this afternoon we can see smoke coming over the ridge in Hot Springs Canyon, as well as plumes of smoke on this side of the top of the canyon—still quite high up. Estimates are that that part of the fire is still probably two days away from us, absent a much stronger wind from the north.

In Burns Creek Canyon as the air cleared, we see no visible smoke at all, where two nights ago there was a solid line of descending fire. The intervening two days of moisture blanket against the hillside have pacified—probably not actually extinguished—the active fire which was descending toward South Coast there. All we can do there now is continue to watch conditions—and keep cutting brush.

Our basic crews of 20 continue to make strong progress clearing and cleaning and cutting back, taking advantage of this respite in the advance in this area.

Esalen Clearance Crew Work

Wider Fire Conditions

Meanwhile, elsewhere the fire has changed dramatically, in ways that very much impact us here. At some 35,000 acres and growing, the fire has at last been declared a Federal Emergency, triggering more federal resources and FEMA funds. Over 1,000 firefighters are now in the area, with more than 50 big rigs, countless other vehicles, and now some air support.

To the south, word today is that the Fire Service has abandoned their firebreak at Dolan Canyon as either unsustainable or already breached (we’re not certain which). The new southern perimeter defense and backfire line has been moved south all the way to Nacimiento/Ferguson Road across the mountains into Hunter Ligget, some 17 miles below Esalen.

The way that impacts us here is that it means the prospect of a much longer, drawn-out burn and firefighting process, which can very much affect our air quality (worsening again), road conditions and road closings, and thus the length of time we may be closed for business. Conceivably this could stretch on for weeks now, during which we may not have open road access or permission to reopen.

To the north, the fire is extremely active and hot, pushed by winds out of the south and penetrating strongly now into Palo Colorado Canyon (some 12 miles below Carmel). The Canyon is being evacuated, including several of our employees who are now refugees here; and apparently air quality in Carmel itself is worsening now too.

The impact of all that on us down here is the diversion of resources out of our area up to the new Palo Colorado perimeter. What’s being left down here is only the structure defense team, which is certainly what matters most to us. Of this division, 22 are now being housed at South Coast in our evacuated rooms. This is of course enormous added security for South Coast. Esalen is hosting and feeding this crew without charge for now—meanwhile we’re informing ourselves about how to access FEMA or other money for those charges (meals at least, we presume; probably not for housing, as apparently their budget calls for them to be in tents). Either way, we’re extremely glad to have them there.

This does mean that promised help from the other professional teams in clearing brush here will not be forthcoming after all; but our own teams continue to make enormous progress on that each day.

Esalen continues to be on “pre-evacuation alert.” If mandatory evacuation is ordered, there are some 60 of us who are committed to stay here no matter what, either to fight the fire or to support the teams who do. Air masks presumably arrive tomorrow.

Esalen Business Update

I cannot add much at this time to what I’ve written before. Issues facing us now—always assuming no major property loss—are the possibility of a prolonged business closing and loss of income, probability of diminished income in the aftermath with iffy air and room conditions for an unspecified time, road problems, power outage and possible waterline damage. To this we add now the issue of how we handle salary support in a prolonged closing, for people we have to lay off temporarily. All this we may know much more about by this coming Wednesday, when we make the decision about reopening or not on Sunday the 6th. From there we will take it event period by event period (i.e., weekend or weeklong), going forward always with four or five days’ notice at each calendar marker. Tricia is at work on detailed scenarios for various options and conditions.

Community News

Spirits continue to be high and determined here on the campus. Meantime, we trust in the deafening alarm signal we have here on double electrical backup. Two blasts for first responders; three for everyone on property to go to the oval for instructions.

John Murphy (and of course Mac Murphy) are continuing to make great contributions to the clearing effort each day, without any distinction on John’s part about whether the specific areas being protected are Esalen-owned or Murphy Trust property. Maggie Murphy and the boys have yielded, reluctantly, to the air quality conditions today, and moved up to town. I believe they plan to be at Chris Price’s tonight (having been graciously offered asylum by Mary Ellen, but with no promise of breathable air!) From there they may go on to our place in Santa Cruz, where Nancy is awaiting them if needed. Johanna and Niko Holloman have left with them for the same reasons and may accompany them all the way to our house in SC, while Perry remains here to continue protecting their property, which the firefighters are calling “probably defensible.”

Today a team of our clearing crew was scheduled to be up on the Hudson Ranch foaming houses there (again, it’s not something we can do here ahead of time, as the foam has a limited effective life once it’s sprayed on—so they’re learning the process up there, while helping neighbors at the same time). They were joined by former Esalen maintenance employee Billy, who also went along to learn the process, so as to be able to foam a neighbors place at Buck Creek, possibly tomorrow. The neighbor came down and took shelter with us two nights ago, gracing us with part of a truckload delivery of firefighting foam which he had ordered up from San Diego—for his use, ours, and also Perry’s. With his usual generosity, he has been sharing this truckload—I’m told over $10,000 worth of foam—in the community.

Danny and Cynthia Bianchetta have been joined by volunteers from Big Sur to clear brush at their place, which the professional crews have picked up and hauled away. They are in good shape, yet still always vulnerable on the Burns Creek side. Presumably firefighters will not let the fire come under the bridge. On another personal note, Nancy’s and my tenants up in Palo Colorado Canyon have been evacuated. We put a lot of resources into clearing a perimeter around our house up there this past winter, and burning the brush (which you can only do in winter, of course). Whether that will be enough, we’ll just have to see. Brian and Joyce Lyke, right below us in the Canyon, are also very exposed, as is Charlie Casio right above us, along with Andrea Juhan and Vic up on Green Ridge Road (the actual fire defense perimeter), and others from our Esalen community.

Enough for now! Appreciation and regards to all, and endless kudos to the dedicated core team remaining here on property.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

Saturday, June 28, 2008

As friends of Esalen, I wanted to share some information with you on the fire that is currently burning in Big Sur and the situation at Esalen.

Esalen Threat Level

The Big Sur Basin fire continues to burn southwards slowly today, while weather continues to be cool and moist, with a marine layer of moisture blanketing the coastal area to between 1,000 and 2,000 feet providing a fire protective zone for Esalen for now. Fire is at the top of Burns Canyon ridge, but not currently threatening South Coast Center, which has been evacuated along with all the homes in the immediate area. Fire is thought to have entered Hot Springs Canyon, but again not yet anywhere below 2,000 feet (about two miles in). With mild offshore breeze coming from the south, these conditions are expected to be favorable for another couple of days.

Thus we are in no immediate danger here, for say the next 48 hours, while the fire works its way slowly, under these conditions, westward down the canyons toward the coast. A change in winds can of course change this at any time.

Larger Basin Fire Context And Strategy

The larger firefighting strategy in the area now is to establish a cleared dozer line running east-west along Dolan Canyon Ridge, about two miles south of the Esalen main gate. As they establish this line from east to west, they will begin later today setting backfires to burn toward the north, to meet the main Basin fire as it moves south. In this way they expect to contain the southern perimeter of the fire, which otherwise they anticipate would continue south pretty much indefinitely. That’s the strategy.

Western fire defense perimeter is Highway 1 itself. In the very best outcome, the marine cover remains in place for some days, moistening the canyons at low altitudes, the two fires meet and extinguish along the southern boundary, while the western side of the fire burns itself out at the upper limit of the marine cover above the road, as it encounters moist brush, over the next 3-5 days. (To the east, the fire is largely being allowed to burn so far unimpeded into the Ventana Wilderness.)

Meanwhile, Esalen is located exactly between the two advancing fire lines—main fire continuing southward from the north (about even with us in places), and back fire moving northward from the south. Our second best outcome is that the larger strategy works overall, while conditions warm and dry a bit and winds change, bringing the fire down to Highway 1 at various unpredictable spots along the 5-6 mile stretch between Dolan Canyon to the south and somewhere above Julia Pfeiffer Burns to the north. In this case the fire would certainly advance down Hot Springs Canyon to some unpredictable extent.

When and if the fire does come down to the Highway—and or to South Coast,—there is a Division Detail crew in the immediate area of some 25 large (“category one”) fire trucks here from up and down California, manned by a seasoned crew of about 50 from around the country, most of whom spend the summer traveling the US from fire to fire. This is the big-truck road-defense crew, using equipment that can’t get up the smaller roads. (Six other Division Details are occupied fighting other sectors of the fire elsewhere—this is just our road defense team). Their Chief, Brian Savage, regards Esalen as a very defensible property (including South Coast), with ideal flat staging and watering areas for trucks and equipment, and good safety refuge possibilities, in their view, for even the worst case scenarios.

Esalen’s Firefighting Preparations

Our Esalen team of designated firefighters will work with and in support of this primary professional force. Our primary team consists of a crew of 19 training now to work together in defense of South Coast and/or our first Esalen vulnerable sites (especially Yurtville and upper staff units), under 4 staff members here who are seasoned firefighters themselves. Others on property will work as directed in support of this primary team, who will likely interact directly with the professional firefighters, if it comes to that.

Foam is being prepared for foaming of buildings when and if they are directly threatened. (You can’t do it ahead, as the foam has about a 24-hour window for full effectiveness.) Brush is being cleared every day, and our Division Chief will send us an advisor today to redirect any of our efforts where he sees the need.

Our priorities continue to be: (1) safety of people first; (2) protecting the Esalen property wherever possible without compromising #1; and (3) ongoing management.

Conditions at Esalen Itself

Esalen is closed for business currently till July 6, canceling Arts Week and postponing Arts Festival Day (pending a possible reschedule in August or September).

Seminarians were asked to leave on Wednesday, due to worsening air and uncertain safety conditions. Currently about 95 staff and others are choosing to remain on property, both to defend the campus itself when and if the fire does come down to the coast here, and also to support our primary team of firefighters—about which more below. No one is being asked, to stay at Esalen between now and July 6. Everyone currently still here is choosing to be here. Anyone with respiratory distress or any respiratory/circulatory disease is being specifically asked to leave now, as air will undoubtedly get worse before it gets better.

Gazebo is closed till at least July 6, for both safety and air quality reasons. Workscholars have been allowed to leave early. All who remain here are assigned to work, either in their own departments, or else clearing brush or otherwise filling in in departments which are understaffed.

Spirits are tense but high here, with everyone stepping up. I cannot say enough good things about the leadership being exemplified by Harry, ably seconded by Jake and Wade, Eric E. and Carolin, and the entire team in charge of safety and security here—or about their support from every department, each of which is stretched tight and still staying fully covered. Harry’s combination of high organization, high calm, and a high level attention to the community "energy field" is calming anxiety and focusing efforts property-wide;—and he is receiving much richly deserved appreciation for his confidence-inspiring style of leadership. Harry likewise has the highest praise for the professional capacities and dedication of all the primary responders in charge of our safety and security.

Business Outlook Going Forward

Meanwhile, we are continuing to plan for a likely resumption of business activity on July 6 or soon after—while also continuing to manage the situation now, which remains dangerous and unpredictable. Thus among other things we are not canceling the Work Scholar month, which begins June 29th—because if open, we will need that workforce. Instead, we are beginning the workscholar month one week late—while accommodating those who choose to or have to arrive in Monterey this Sunday as scheduled, by providing housing and a program for them up in town for the week.

Our main challenges to reopening on July 6—if we have not suffered any major fire damage—will be (1) extended power outage, (2) possible air quality issues, (3) possible waterline damage in Hot Springs Canyon (about 600 feet of our larger, 4-inch line is exposed PVC piping, which is vulnerable to fire. Our backup there is our 2-inch line, which moreover is spring-fed and thus not subject to any contamination from possible flame-retardant spraying in the canyon). To this list we have to add road slides, which are already beginning in burned-over areas to the north.

Power is currently out here, while PG&E is trying to assess damage to poles and transformers in areas already burned to the north of us. Extended outages are a problem to us, not least because some of our rooms cannot be heated or supplied with hot water from generator power. Jake is currently working on a plan to supply at least hot water to the affected rooms. It could be that we would offer those rooms at a discount for the duration.

All that of course is hypothetical backup, based on the assumption that we come through this crisis without major damage. But we have to be doing that planning as we go, in view of the fact that the minimum loss of revenue we will sustain from this closing, at best, will be upwards of $250,000—with the prospect of likely business reductions going forward through the year, due to people’s reluctance to travel to the area, possible substandard room conditions, and/or likely multiple road closings, as the burned-over areas turn into slides.

Other Items

We continue to provide refuge for about 8 neighbors who have been evacuated from their houses, but are remaining in the area to continue defensive prep of their properties during the day.

Please do not call the gate or the front office for updates, as they are swamped with calls, and with multiple lines down at different times, the main line also has to function as the emergency line. Information updates are being added to the Esalen web site several times daily.

Thanks to all for all your messages and good wishes. With gratefulness and with prayers for all those suffering loss or danger.

Gordon Wheeler
President & CEO, Esalen Institute
Big Sur, California

“If we could know the secret history of our enemies we would find in each person’s life enough suffering and sorrow to disarm all hostilities.”
—Longfellow

Photo credits: Daniel Bianchetta, Robert Dayap, Harry Feinberg, Bryan Scott, and Jeremy Taylor.