Our podcast showcases in-depth interviews with the dynamic teachers and thinkers who are part of Esalen Institute. Hosted by Sam Stern, a former Esalen student and current staff member, the podcasts have featured engaging conversations with authors Cheryl Strayed and Michael Pollan, innovators Stan Grof and Dr. Mark Hyman, teachers Byron Katie, Mark Coleman and Jean Houston, Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, and many more.
These podcasts are made possible in part by the support of Esalen donors and are licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.
Listen to the latest episodes here, and subscribe to Voices of Esalen on Spotify, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.
John Marks is the founder of Search for Common Ground, an international NGO whose purpose is to end violent conflict around the world. In 2018, Search was nominated for a Nobel Peace prize. Over the years some of their notable work has included helping to avert genocide in Burundi, supporting free elections in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and creating training in the Democratic Republic of Congo to curb sexual assault. Marks is the author of the new book From Vision to Action, Remaking the world through Social Entrepreneurship. Together, we spoke about how Esalen helped to launch his work and what he’s learned in over 40 years of track 2, or citizen diplomacy.
BIO:
John Marks had an unconventional path to peacemaking, starting as a critic of the CIA and becoming a renowned social entrepreneur. Marks resigned from the State Department in 1970 to protest the United States' invasion of Cambodia. He co-authored a bestselling book, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence, which exposed abuses committed by the CIA. His second book, which won a major award for investigative reporting, also focused on CIA abuses.
In 1982, Marks founded Search for Common Ground (Search), an organization dedicated to conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Marks's journey showcases a remarkable shift from a career focused on exposing wrongdoing to a life dedicated to building common ground and fostering peace. Marks and his colleagues at Search were known as "Searchers," highlighting their dedication to seeking solutions and common ground in conflict situations.
Today we celebrate Bicycle Day, a modern semi-holiday (unrecognized by official governmental agencies yet observed by psychedelic enthusiasts across the globe) that commemorates Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman’s bike ride home from his lab on April 19th, 1943, after ingesting 250 micrograms of lysergic acid diethlymide, and in the process creating the world's first recorded intentional LSD trip. When Hoffman originally synthesized the compound in 1938, in the Sandoz Pharmeacuticals laboratory in Basel, he had deemed it next to useless, and put it up on the shelf to be forgotten — but five years later, something within him told him to take a second look. The rest, as they say, is history.
Today’s Voices of Esalen episode is a treasure drawn from our extensive archives — an interview with Albert Hoffman himself, conducted by none other than Stanislav Grof, sometimes known as the godfather of LSD psychotherapy. Grof was a Czechoslovakian psychoanalyst who was enormously influenced by Hoffman’s discovery of LSD; in his research in Czechoslovakia he oversaw tens of thousands of supervised therapeutic LSD trips. Grof would emigrate to the United States in the late 1960’s, a move precipitated by the Soviet invasion of his country. Grof spent more than ten years as a teacher in residence at the Esalen Institute during the 1970’s and 80’s, where he developed the practice of holotropic breath work and became one of the founders of the school of transpersonal psychology.
In this interview, Grof and Hoffman explore a host of topics, including Hoffman’s discovery of LSD and how on his first trip, Hoffman freaked out and thought he was going insane, then thought he was dying; how Hoffman then became aware that his new discovery would have immense significance to the field of psychiatry; why Hoffman believed LSD could be used as a model psychosis and a way to study schizophrenia; how Hoffman collaborated with amateur mycologist R. Gordon Wasson to create a synthetic version of so-called magic mushrooms, which would be known as psilocybin; how Hoffman traveled to Mexico to deliver this modern version of mushrooms to the famed curandera Maria Sabina, who had introduced Wasson to the mushrooms in the first place, and more. They end this interview by speaking about Hoffman’s reaction to the way LSD escaped the laboratory and infiltrated culture during the turbulent 1960s.
This interview was conducted at Esalen Institute in 1984 — just one part of the ever evolving and complex tapestry of history that unfolded here in Big Sur.
Keith Thompson is an author, independent journalist, talk radio host, and former U.S. Senate staff member. Keith’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Esquire and the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s the author of the new book, The UFO Paradox: The Celestial and Symbolic World of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, in which he reveals how the UFO phenomenon ultimately represents a call from the cosmos for humanity to open to greater dimensions of reality and recognize that our understanding of the universe is still far from complete.
Together we talked about how he discovered Esalen in 1975 from a New Yorker article, his friendship with Esalen co-founder Michael Murphy, how he became involved in the earliest incarnations of Esalen’s Center for Theory & Research, the genius of Esalen’s "no one captures the flag" approach, the "Tuesday morning phenomenon," and the links between the paranormal and the aims of the human potential movement.
Today we have a special episode. We're bringing you something unique and powerful: a real Esalen check-in. This practice, rooted in the Gestalt therapy that evolved at Esalen over the years, has become a cornerstone of the Esalen experience, often described as a catalyst for self-awareness, connection, and personal growth.
Our check-in features an incredible group of people: full-time staff members Nani Almanza, Jess Siller, Alex Shepherd, Sam Stern, and Shira Levine, as well as Faith Blakeney, a participant in the LEEP and REEP residential programs.
What you'll hear is real. It is authentic and unscripted. While our participants were aware of being recorded, they spoke from the heart. We've made every effort to preserve the intimacy and rawness of the experience with only minimal editing.
This episode offers a rare glimpse into the heart of what makes Esalen truly special. This is the secret sauce — the open, honest sharing that forms the foundation for personal transformation.
I invite you to listen with an open heart and mind, as we explore this fundamental Esalen practice together.
Erik Davis stands tall at the intersection between mysticism, technology, and counterculture. He's one of my favorite writers, the author of many stupendous books, among them TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information, Nomad Codes, as well as High Weirdness, a highly entertaining book that explores 1970s counterculture and its relationship with altered states of consciousness. Erik is also an Esalen faculty member, having recently taught a course on Embodied Writing and Spiritual Practice.
In this conversation, we went into his new book, Blotter, an extended meditation on LSD blotter art and the culture that surrounds it. We also found time to veer off into a host of topics, including Terence McKenna, John C. Lilly, Dick Price, madness, Stan Grof, the spiritual emergency network, prep-school deadheads, the Village Voice, the Internet and Erik's theory that it kills subcultures, the phenomenon of what Erik calls "cannabis thinking," how he was never much of a "cannabis writer," tape machines and their place in the counterculture, the Merry Pranksters, Phillip K. Dick, Bay Area Poster art, the DEA and its own little zine — and much more.
Erik is one of the cofounders of the Berkeley Alembic, a nonprofit bodymind center committed to experiments in transformation. You can also find his collected works at Techgnosis.
Leah Song is one half of the musical duo Rising Appalachia — alongside her sister Chloe, they are an internationally touring folk ensemble steeped in the soul of the South that blends Americana music with lyrics, rhythm, and poetry to form a unique sound influenced by a blend of Appalachian, Irish, Latin and world roots music. Leah was at Esalen Institute for a week this summer to dance and make music with Lucia Horan and Douglas Drummond’s 5 Rhythms workshop, and she was kind enough to do a live interview on a Wednesday evening for a rapt audience of more than a hundred lucky souls. She spoke wisely about her history with activism, her love of 90's hip hop, her dynamic relationship with the festival scene, what slow music means to her, and a lot more. She even played several songs. What a gem!
Known to the masses as simply "JJ," JJ Jeffries is a recognizable figure on the Esalen campus, meeting and greeting arrivals with a kind and pleasant vibe, as well as a memorably dry sense of humor. Mentor, Gestalt and Embodied Awareness practitioner, musician, and memory-keeper, JJ teaches a host of classes at Esalen, including "How to Drop Into Esalen" and his suite of "Pathways to Joy" offerings.
JJ describes his pre-Esalen self as a “clueless yokel from Indiana” — the middle child of six boys, “born poor, perpetually confused, raised on corn and really bad TV.” Until he hit his stride at 22, when “I joined the privileged ranks of bartenders and ne’er do wells and never looked back.”
Says JJ, "Eventually, at Esalen, I was asked to lead meditation, which I crafted to include music, sensory awareness, and the chakras. Then, when asked to do a dance, I chose to delve into my studies of early childhood development, attachment theory and many other somatic arenas as vehicles to transform dance into a format that put these theories into practice. The intention was 'how do we connect without words and how do we discover our deepest desires by taking risks and being vulnerable together' — letting the body and experiences be our pathways to joy."
Vivian Rosenthal is co-founder of Frequency Breathwork and Diamond Rose Sanctuary, where she combines Kundalini, breathwork, and energy medicine to create profound shifts in consciousness.
Vivian has guided over 10,000 people through therapeutic breath work sessions. In this episode, we’ll split our time between Vivian speaking about how breath work can elicit non-ordinary states of consciousness that can help combat anxiety and stress, and an actual full length breath work session.
Vivian's is doing a lot in the world: her commitment to mental health has led her to collaborate with scientists on groundbreaking research, including a pilot study on using breathwork to treat PTSD, depression, and anxiety in veterans. She's also created the ambitious immersive symphonic breath work journey, “Symphony of the Soul” which debuted in Flint, Michigan, bringing together hundreds of people to embark on a communal and transcendent experience.
Get ready for an illuminating and experiential hour that might just change the way you think about your own body and the simple act of breathing.
Snow Raven, also known as Suor, a performer from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in Arctic Siberia, now residing in the United States, performed live at Esalen Institute in January 2024 during our Go Within Series. Snow Raven is renowned for her unique blend of traditional shamanic practices and modern electronic music, which she uses to connect with and teach about her indigenous culture.
Snow Raven's artistic practice is rooted in neo-shamanism. She believes in the interconnectedness of all things. This philosophy extends to her use of technology, which she views as a natural extension of human innovation. She has collaborated on various projects that blend traditional shamanic elements with modern technology, including creating an algorithmic generator of her vocal sounds.
She stunned the crowd at Esalen with her riveting performance. Esalen's Sadia Bruce joins us today in this episode to talk about how she came to bring Snow Raven to Esalen. To conclude the episode, Bruce gives us a preview of Esalen's Summer Groove series for 2024, an exhilarating celebration of sound, creativity, and movement nestled amidst the breathtaking beauty of Esalen Institute.
Experience Snow Raven live when she returns to Esalen for the last week of this year's Go Within series, January 27–31, 2025.
Maddy Dychtwald is the author of the new bestselling book Ageless Aging: A Woman’s Guide to Increasing Healthspan, Brainspan, and Lifespan. Maddy has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the top fifty female futurists globally. With her husband Ken Dychtwald, she is the co-founder of Age Wave, a world leader in understanding and addressing the far-reaching impacts of longevity and our aging population. She’s a member of The Wall Street Journal’s Expert Panel and has been featured in Bloomberg Businessweek, Newsweek, Time, Fox Business News, CNBC, and NPR.
Her book Ageless Aging provides an insider’s guide to living better longer, covering everything from fitness and nutrition to hormones and ageism. Some pieces of the book:
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