Highway 1 north of Esalen is currently closed due to a wildfire. Esalen is not in danger, but guests coming from the north will need to detour.
Learn more
Esalen is a not-for-profit holistic educational center offering wild comfort and space for emergent transformation and internal exploration since 1962. Anchored by the inspiring beauty of Big Sur and an incomparable intellectual history, we are always negotiating nuance, tangling with complexity, and sitting inside contradiction. All the while, we embrace the messy, imperfect practice of moving toward our highest humanity. Enter where you are.
Alchemy is all about taking the mundane, the unexpected, even the inconvenient, and creating Magic. This week will be an incredible opportunity to join master teachers Laura Day, Gahl Sasson, and Nancy Winston for a collaborative experience in Human Alchemy, where you'll engage in healing, neuro-linguistic programming, hypnosis, astrology, intuition, ritual, and personal mythology to transform your reality in tangible ways.
The Artist lives within everyone and Art can be made out of just about anything! In this transformative workshop, Dana Albany and Michael "Flash" Hopkins are your guides to using repurposed material in a whole new context of re-creation. Come experiment with a vast array of reused materials to create mixed-media mosaics, sculptures, and collages.
Led by award-winning novelist and long-time Buddhist practitioner Janis Cooke Newman, this combination writing and meditation workshop invites writers and meditators of all levels to delve deeply into both practices. Throughout the workshop, you'll practice together with other students in a number of ways to encourage your own work and practice to flourish.
These limited edition sweatshirts just arrived! Made specifically for the season, these hand drawn landscape designs perfectly showcase the beauty of our Esalen cliffs and sunset views. We hope they represent an intentional way of being, while paying homage to our sacred land. All purchases made at the Esalen Store, both in person and online, go directly to support Esalen programs and the land. Thank you for giving back to our community.
In this era of chaos, change, and grief for the world, you may find yourself facing difficulties that seem insurmountable. Lucia Horan and Peter Selwyn invite you to a weekend retreat to hold together what should not be held alone. Using the tools of 5Rhythms movement practice combined with a process of grief work grounded in emotional presence, non-judgment, and supportive witnessing, participants will come together in a safe space to help heal mind, body, and spirit.
Join us April 23 - 26, 2021 for a live-streamed event that is the first in an 8-part Entheowheel series. Your guides for this inaugural journey The Ceremony & Science of Psilocybin include: Jyoti Ma, Paul Stamets, Xochitl Ashe, East Forest, Robin Earhart-Harris, Dream Mullick, James Fadiman, Millana Snow, Justin Boretta, Allan Badiner, Grace Oh, Rhada Weppner, Sachin Patel and a digital pre-recorded transmission from Francoise Bourzat, and more to be announced. This event is designed as an educational opportunity to nurture a sense of belonging while you move through the arc of preparing, experiencing, and integrating a future sacred plant medicine experience.
The first installment of our new, free quarterly digital summit, The Way Forward: How To Stay Inspired, Reintegrate, and Find Hope in the Shadow of the Pandemic will explore the concept of collective trauma, how it both unifies and divides us, and most importantly, how we can face it together to heal on a local and national level. Offered for a sliding scale contribution, the two-day program includes multiple tracks to dig into, from interviews with incredible thought leaders and activists to a session on prolonged somatic grief processing through dance and movement. Each interview will be followed by a live Q&A with the speaker, and every attendee is welcome to join in connecting with our luminaries. In true Esalen style, we will open the event on Saturday and close it on Sunday with a group awareness practice.
Be a leading center for exploring and realizing human potential through experience, education, and research.
Work toward the realization of a more just, creative, and sustainable world, seeking answers to questions unlikely to be explored by traditional universities and religions.
Sponsor pioneering initiatives and offer personal, spiritual, and social transformation programs for residents, interns and workshop participants.
Esalen is a major catalyst in the transformation of humankind, working with individuals and institutions to integrate body, mind, heart, spirit, and community in a nurturing relationship with the environment.
Interviews with teachers and thinkers from the Esalen universe including Cheryl Strayed and Michael Pollan, innovators Stan Grof and Dr. Mark Hyman, Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, and many more!
Twice weekly interviews with Esalen faculty and change agents about timely topics — coping with the pandemic, perspectives on racial justice, and overall well-being.
The Esalen Journal is our blog, with posts encompassing everything from inspiring conversations with cultural luminaries and Esalen instructors to timely news announcements, book recommendations, and soul-nurturing recipes.
In addition to unparalleled access to the leading minds of the day and rejuvenating virtual gatherings, we also welcome visitors to our California estate and retreat center, which boasts natural hot springs, an organic farm and garden, serene guest suites, and more, all set on over 100 acres along the gorgeous Big Sur coastline.
Highway 1 north of Esalen is currently closed due to a wildfire. Esalen is not in danger, but guests coming from the north will need to detour.
Learn more