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Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion
Jeffrey Kripal here recounts the spectacular history of Esalen, the institute that has long been a world leader in alternative and experiential education and stands today at the center of the human potential movement. Forged in the literary and mythical leanings of the Beat Generation, inspired in the lecture halls of Stanford by radical scholars of comparative religion, the institute was the remarkable brainchild of Michael Murphy and Richard Price.
Set against the heady backdrop of California during the revolutionary 1960s, Esalen recounts in fascinating detail how these two maverick thinkers sought to fuse the spiritual revelations of the East with the scientific revolutions of the West, or to combine the very best elements of Zen Buddhism, Western psychology, and Indian yoga into a decidedly utopian vision that rejected the dogmas of conventional religion. In their religion of no religion, the natural world was just as crucial as the spiritual one, science and faith not only commingled but became staunch allies, and the enlightenment of the body could lead to the full realization of our development as human beings.
“An impressive new book. . . . [Kripal] has written the definitive intellectual history of the ideas behind the institute.”— San Francisco Chronicle
“Kripal examines Esalen’s extraordinary history and evocatively describes the breech birth of Murphy and Price’s brainchild. His real achievement, though, is effortlessly synthesizing a dizzying array of dissonant phenomena (Cold War espionage, ecstatic religiosity), incongruous pairings (Darwinism, Tantric sex), and otherwise schizy ephemera (psychedelic drugs, spaceflight) into a cogent, satisfyingly complete narrative.”— Atlantic Monthly
“Kripal has produced the first all-encompassing history of Esalen: its intellectual, social, personal, literary and spiritual passages. Kripal brings us up-to-date and takes us deep beneath historical surfaces in this definitive, elegantly written book.”— Playboy
Set against the heady backdrop of California during the revolutionary 1960s, Esalen recounts in fascinating detail how these two maverick thinkers sought to fuse the spiritual revelations of the East with the scientific revolutions of the West, or to combine the very best elements of Zen Buddhism, Western psychology, and Indian yoga into a decidedly utopian vision that rejected the dogmas of conventional religion. In their religion of no religion, the natural world was just as crucial as the spiritual one, science and faith not only commingled but became staunch allies, and the enlightenment of the body could lead to the full realization of our development as human beings.
“An impressive new book. . . . [Kripal] has written the definitive intellectual history of the ideas behind the institute.”— San Francisco Chronicle
“Kripal examines Esalen’s extraordinary history and evocatively describes the breech birth of Murphy and Price’s brainchild. His real achievement, though, is effortlessly synthesizing a dizzying array of dissonant phenomena (Cold War espionage, ecstatic religiosity), incongruous pairings (Darwinism, Tantric sex), and otherwise schizy ephemera (psychedelic drugs, spaceflight) into a cogent, satisfyingly complete narrative.”— Atlantic Monthly
“Kripal has produced the first all-encompassing history of Esalen: its intellectual, social, personal, literary and spiritual passages. Kripal brings us up-to-date and takes us deep beneath historical surfaces in this definitive, elegantly written book.”— Playboy
594 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2008
60 people are currently reading
566 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey J. Kripal
40 books143 followersJeffrey J. Kripal, Ph.D. (History of Religions, The University of Chicago, 1993; M.A., U. Chicago; B.A., Religion, Conception Seminary College, 1985), holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he serves as Associate Dean of Humanities, Faculty and Graduate Studies. He also has served as Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 21, 2024
Several years ago my husband and I were driving down highway 1. ESALEN institute. Came in to view. We pulled up to the gate. I just wanted to drive around and see the place that I had heard about years ago while living in Berkeley. They had seminars there. It was very popular. It was for rich people. It was new Agey .And there were rumors of orgies. The woma At the gate ask for our reservations. We had none so we're turned away.
I picked up this book and began reading. There was a story in it that is now called, The night of the Doberman.5 men were playing in the hot tubs, and another person walked over to them. And Argument took place. Guards showed up with 2 dogs and escorted the men off of the grounds. After this you had to have reservations.
The main theme of ESALAN seems to be tantric sex. I thought of this chapter or chapters as tantric sex apologetics. I thought it would never end. I had left Tibetan Buddhism when I heard that these were They're teachings.
1 of their members I believe, had a nervous breakdown due to meditation. His mind began opening and just never stopped. He was institutionalized for a while but returned. Then they began taking in people who had breakdowns from meditating. I hope they were able to help them.
So what were their other teachings? LSD. Psychology. ESP and other psychic phenomenon. Mysticism. Hinduism. Quantum physics but only that which is connected to mysticism. But no matter what they taught, it seemed to me that it always ended up being weird. The weirdness came when they added on to the teachings that were already there. Examples God is a HE. Men who love god are homosexuals. At least that sounded like that is what he was saying. Another writer. In the future man will be able to change the shape of his body through thought. I wonder what he wants to change? Again, did I hear correctly?
I picked up this book and began reading. There was a story in it that is now called, The night of the Doberman.5 men were playing in the hot tubs, and another person walked over to them. And Argument took place. Guards showed up with 2 dogs and escorted the men off of the grounds. After this you had to have reservations.
The main theme of ESALAN seems to be tantric sex. I thought of this chapter or chapters as tantric sex apologetics. I thought it would never end. I had left Tibetan Buddhism when I heard that these were They're teachings.
1 of their members I believe, had a nervous breakdown due to meditation. His mind began opening and just never stopped. He was institutionalized for a while but returned. Then they began taking in people who had breakdowns from meditating. I hope they were able to help them.
So what were their other teachings? LSD. Psychology. ESP and other psychic phenomenon. Mysticism. Hinduism. Quantum physics but only that which is connected to mysticism. But no matter what they taught, it seemed to me that it always ended up being weird. The weirdness came when they added on to the teachings that were already there. Examples God is a HE. Men who love god are homosexuals. At least that sounded like that is what he was saying. Another writer. In the future man will be able to change the shape of his body through thought. I wonder what he wants to change? Again, did I hear correctly?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 19, 2022
The book was loaned to me by a good friend (we're both Canadians) who shares an interest in human potentials. True, Esalen's raison d'etre is an important one, in terms of the human prospect, and that this book does present many fascinating stories. It also has relevance to an interesting thread of American history (think of R.W. Emerson, Walter B. Russell, Alan Watts). But as a long-time practitioner of 'inner-work' processes, I found the book to have modest practical import and, at well over 500 pages, seemed overly detailed.
The book could be quite absorbing for someone who is new to the field and wants to get serious about their personal evolution. Even more so, probably, for someone who has heard of the Esalen center, and wants to 'look before leaping', i.e., before traveling there and getting involved.
The book could be quite absorbing for someone who is new to the field and wants to get serious about their personal evolution. Even more so, probably, for someone who has heard of the Esalen center, and wants to 'look before leaping', i.e., before traveling there and getting involved.
May 21, 2009
I have a longstanding interest in the human potential movement, where Esalen stands as a kind of fulcrum between its origins in the first decades of the 20th century and its contemporary ubiquity. I picked up this book and went straight for its treatment of Terence McKenna, my late great friend and colleague, who was a major figure at Esalen for more than 15 years. Terence seems almost forgotten these days, so I was very happy to see that Kripal treats him with the weight and levity with which Terence deserves to be remembered. Kripal strikes a balance that few contemporary critics of Terence seem to reach, and it gives me confidence that this book is a worthy history of a very special place.
June 20, 2010
I liked the early chapters on the intellectual and spiritual-experiential influences and history of the founding and early years of Esalen. Some of the short biographies of principal figures in the development of Esalen are interesting. But the book is too long, repetitive, and becomes too much of a series of book summaries and reports of material produced by Esalen teachers and characters. The author is too much in love with his own conceptual schema, to the detriment of a more concrete, engaging - and likely shorter! - history of the place.
October 30, 2025
Kripal opens the books by noting that Esalen is a place of synchronicity, where connections form without apparent causes. Synchronicity is something I can confirm myself. On my one visit (so far), I sat down with two strangers: One of them was also there for her birthday which was that evening, and the other one had been in Mammoth Lakes the weekend prior, where I had just had a late summer vacation. The site, perched on cliffs above the Pacific, centered around the waters of the hot springs, is paradise on Earth.
Kripal's book is a serious intellectual history of the mission and accomplishments of Esalen. His framing is that Esalen is a (perhaps the) leading center of the Western development of the Tantra, an inter-religious, inter-philosophical practice of enlightenment of the body. Tantra draws from Hindu and Buddhist religious practices, syncretically picking up what is useful where it can, and putting these practices in deep conversation with Freudian beliefs about the unconscious.
The two founders of Esalen, Michael Murphy and Dick Price, were both immensely influenced by Stanford Professor Frederic Spiegelberg, a noted Sanskrit scholar. The Murphy family owned the land the hot springs were on. At the time, the baths were a gay hookup spot, a strange place for 1950s queer culture overseen by the rugged and austere Big Sur locals. Michael kicked out the occupiers in the "Night of the Dobermans", and founded Esalen proper in 1962.
It's easier to list who in the counter-culture wasn't at Esalen. Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, and ethnobotany/psychedelia were major early presences. Joan Baez lived on site and gave concerts. Abraham Maslow and Fritz Perls developed humanistic psychological theories through intense hands-ons encounter groups. The institute was profiled in Look, Time, and The New York Times. There were various ups and downs through the decades. Finances were always shaky and Dick Price died in a tragic hiking accident in 1985. In notable successes, a US-Soviet diplomatic program (initially organized around parapsychology research) brought Boris Yeltsin to the US and may have meaningfully contributed to the end of the Cold War.
Kripal acknowledges that Esalen is a flawed organization. Notably, it represents a white and wealthy slice of a spiritual movement. Getting to Big Sur for an extended period of time takes resources. There have been some minor revolts by the staff, and various managerial crises. More than a few people have killed themselves at Esalen, though it also fair to say that the place is a last resort for souls in crisis, and perhaps no community could have healed everybody. The institute has made some progress with the Esselen tribe, who were the original inhabitants. And unlike many in the New Age movement, no one has captured the flag (to borrow an Esalen motto) and it's avoided many excesses of authoritarian guruhood.
A comprehensive survey of a place like Esalen is impossible, but Kripal's book does a solid job of framing the goals and origins of the human potential movement and its key contributors.
Kripal's book is a serious intellectual history of the mission and accomplishments of Esalen. His framing is that Esalen is a (perhaps the) leading center of the Western development of the Tantra, an inter-religious, inter-philosophical practice of enlightenment of the body. Tantra draws from Hindu and Buddhist religious practices, syncretically picking up what is useful where it can, and putting these practices in deep conversation with Freudian beliefs about the unconscious.
The two founders of Esalen, Michael Murphy and Dick Price, were both immensely influenced by Stanford Professor Frederic Spiegelberg, a noted Sanskrit scholar. The Murphy family owned the land the hot springs were on. At the time, the baths were a gay hookup spot, a strange place for 1950s queer culture overseen by the rugged and austere Big Sur locals. Michael kicked out the occupiers in the "Night of the Dobermans", and founded Esalen proper in 1962.
It's easier to list who in the counter-culture wasn't at Esalen. Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, and ethnobotany/psychedelia were major early presences. Joan Baez lived on site and gave concerts. Abraham Maslow and Fritz Perls developed humanistic psychological theories through intense hands-ons encounter groups. The institute was profiled in Look, Time, and The New York Times. There were various ups and downs through the decades. Finances were always shaky and Dick Price died in a tragic hiking accident in 1985. In notable successes, a US-Soviet diplomatic program (initially organized around parapsychology research) brought Boris Yeltsin to the US and may have meaningfully contributed to the end of the Cold War.
Kripal acknowledges that Esalen is a flawed organization. Notably, it represents a white and wealthy slice of a spiritual movement. Getting to Big Sur for an extended period of time takes resources. There have been some minor revolts by the staff, and various managerial crises. More than a few people have killed themselves at Esalen, though it also fair to say that the place is a last resort for souls in crisis, and perhaps no community could have healed everybody. The institute has made some progress with the Esselen tribe, who were the original inhabitants. And unlike many in the New Age movement, no one has captured the flag (to borrow an Esalen motto) and it's avoided many excesses of authoritarian guruhood.
A comprehensive survey of a place like Esalen is impossible, but Kripal's book does a solid job of framing the goals and origins of the human potential movement and its key contributors.
July 10, 2021
Background Enlightens/Need Recent History - While seeking out history and current status of the human relations/human potential movements, I came upon this book about Esalen as one of the well-known entities that has helped foster related concepts, activities, and learning (e.g. see my review of Hawkin’s "Power vs. Force"). Given my curiosity of where these movements in our times today, I found Kripal’s book helpful, but I also had to go to more recent sources to better comprehend their present standing.
The book consists of 7 parts, 19 chapters and including an introduction and a conclusion. The major parts entail: (1) Openings - Introduction: On Wild Facts and Altered Categories, (2) Geographic, Historical, and Literary Orientations (1882-1962), (3) The Empowerment of the Founders (1950-1960), (4) The Outlaw Era and the American Counterculture (1960-1970), (5) The Occult Imaginal and Cold War Activism (1970-1985), (6) Crisis and the Religion of No Religion (1985-1993), and (7) Before and After the Storm (1993-2006). It also contains Abbreviations, Notes, On Rare Things: The Oral, Visual, and Written Sources.
Some of my favorite parts are those that provide background on the founders (Michael Murphy and Richard Price) and early activities showing how the “Institute” grew out of the counter-culture (related to therapeutic and eastern thought). As Kripal states on page 13, “Esalen would pursue. . . ‘an incipient method’ . . . beyond the orthodoxies of science and the creeds of the churches.” I was glad to see mention of NTL (Nation Training Labs) and encounter groups because of my contact with that stream in previous years (see my review of "The NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change: Principles, Practices, and Perspectives"). For instance, I had been to a program at the NTL Bethel site and took part a workshop with Will Schutz elsewhere; Schutz conducted such group work and was in residence for some time at Esalen (see p. 166).
I enjoyed the mention of Murphy’s “Golf in the Kingdom” as well as the analysis of this and other books related to those associated with the Institute. Those discussed involve resident scholars such as Gregory Bateson, Joseph Campbell, Stanislav Grof, Sam Keen, George Leonard, Fritz Perls, Ida Rolf, Virginia Satir, and Alan Watts on the conceptual/programmatic side. On the administrative side, it was revealing to learn of Steve Donovan’s assuming operational leadership, his business influence and the start of efforts to get the Institute on sounder ground financially and organizationally (e.g. see my review of Taproot’s "Powered by Pro Bono: The Nonprofits Step-by-Step Guide to Scoping, Securing, Managing, and Scaling Pro Bono Resources"). The transformation/future of the body project at its height with the post-mortem survival conferences (surviving bodily death) was captivating and puzzling at the same time. If Esalen is truly engenders “religion of no religion,” it seems there would be some attention to those such as Steven Pinker (see my review of his "Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress") who take a more a-religious or secular approach.
There could have been a timeline and more comments on the course of Esalen’s development that would have been useful. Also, the Institute website offers more recent information, such as the effect of mudslides in California, Rt 1 cutting off access to the Institute in 2017 and its rebounding from natural and financial setbacks. Furthermore, it is interesting to learn about how Esalen is revamping its program offerings more in tune with a younger audience, e.g. with such topics as Brazilian song and dance, evolving masculinity, retreat for women physicians, and a ‘Blue Mind’ summit series on the value of healthy oceans combining contemplative practice with science including Dr. Daniel Siegel neuropsychiatrist (e.g. see my review of Seigel’s "Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation"). Perhaps, a revised edition at some point might provide such updates.
Despite being a bit dated, this book should be of benefit to religious and other scholars as well as those interested in the history of Esalen and its place in the human potential movement.
The book consists of 7 parts, 19 chapters and including an introduction and a conclusion. The major parts entail: (1) Openings - Introduction: On Wild Facts and Altered Categories, (2) Geographic, Historical, and Literary Orientations (1882-1962), (3) The Empowerment of the Founders (1950-1960), (4) The Outlaw Era and the American Counterculture (1960-1970), (5) The Occult Imaginal and Cold War Activism (1970-1985), (6) Crisis and the Religion of No Religion (1985-1993), and (7) Before and After the Storm (1993-2006). It also contains Abbreviations, Notes, On Rare Things: The Oral, Visual, and Written Sources.
Some of my favorite parts are those that provide background on the founders (Michael Murphy and Richard Price) and early activities showing how the “Institute” grew out of the counter-culture (related to therapeutic and eastern thought). As Kripal states on page 13, “Esalen would pursue. . . ‘an incipient method’ . . . beyond the orthodoxies of science and the creeds of the churches.” I was glad to see mention of NTL (Nation Training Labs) and encounter groups because of my contact with that stream in previous years (see my review of "The NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change: Principles, Practices, and Perspectives"). For instance, I had been to a program at the NTL Bethel site and took part a workshop with Will Schutz elsewhere; Schutz conducted such group work and was in residence for some time at Esalen (see p. 166).
I enjoyed the mention of Murphy’s “Golf in the Kingdom” as well as the analysis of this and other books related to those associated with the Institute. Those discussed involve resident scholars such as Gregory Bateson, Joseph Campbell, Stanislav Grof, Sam Keen, George Leonard, Fritz Perls, Ida Rolf, Virginia Satir, and Alan Watts on the conceptual/programmatic side. On the administrative side, it was revealing to learn of Steve Donovan’s assuming operational leadership, his business influence and the start of efforts to get the Institute on sounder ground financially and organizationally (e.g. see my review of Taproot’s "Powered by Pro Bono: The Nonprofits Step-by-Step Guide to Scoping, Securing, Managing, and Scaling Pro Bono Resources"). The transformation/future of the body project at its height with the post-mortem survival conferences (surviving bodily death) was captivating and puzzling at the same time. If Esalen is truly engenders “religion of no religion,” it seems there would be some attention to those such as Steven Pinker (see my review of his "Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress") who take a more a-religious or secular approach.
There could have been a timeline and more comments on the course of Esalen’s development that would have been useful. Also, the Institute website offers more recent information, such as the effect of mudslides in California, Rt 1 cutting off access to the Institute in 2017 and its rebounding from natural and financial setbacks. Furthermore, it is interesting to learn about how Esalen is revamping its program offerings more in tune with a younger audience, e.g. with such topics as Brazilian song and dance, evolving masculinity, retreat for women physicians, and a ‘Blue Mind’ summit series on the value of healthy oceans combining contemplative practice with science including Dr. Daniel Siegel neuropsychiatrist (e.g. see my review of Seigel’s "Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation"). Perhaps, a revised edition at some point might provide such updates.
Despite being a bit dated, this book should be of benefit to religious and other scholars as well as those interested in the history of Esalen and its place in the human potential movement.
November 22, 2007
I read about 100 pages of this book and then skimmed the rest. The topic of Esalen was interesting to me because I am interested in mysticism and personal development without religious dogma. Unfortunately, this book was challenging for me. It felt like a textbook or a very long-winded dissertation. I wish it had flowed more and that the author did some editing. I did gain some new insights, but I hope that I can find a more readable book about this topic.
January 28, 2008
I enjoyed many of the stories, but the narrative didn't hang together very well. And the goofs, well, for instance, Gov. George Brown, and putting the Watts Riots in 1963. I'm sure there are better books about this place out there.
February 20, 2008
I gave it four stars because it's the most thorough history yet published on this crossroads of experimental education. John Heider's Human Potential Papers is a fascinating look in the the early Esalen, but not yet published.
March 23, 2013
A rare book that made me wish I had been in the right time and place to experience Esalen in its heyday. For a fuller review, see Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
April 12, 2018
Amazing intellectual history of Big Sur´s Esalen. Well rounded and comprehensive with details ranging from founders´ tensions and dreams to lifelong pursuits, from inner explorations to world diplomacy.
May 6, 2023
I enjoyed this book immensely, having become intrigued with the history of Esalen and it's influence in the human potential movement years ago and visiting twice in the past nearly 20. Set in a dramatically beautiful (treacherous?) location on the west coast, the space holds the energetic imprint and so many memories of a vast array of spiritual seekers, healers and teachers and Kripal attempts to pull so many aspects of its history together. I cannot say the outline/ timeline of chapters is smooth (he jumps around quite a bit in highlighting concepts and periods and important people) but I thoroughly appreciated the scope of what he created in describing personal accounts of both founders' journeys, the perfect combination to create the paradoxical magic of both sacred embodiment and blissful transcendence. Michael Murphy and Richard Price spent their lifetimes (one cut way too
short) on contributing to the understanding of our lived experience as both divine and human beings.
He does a nice job of illustrating the parallels and connections and literal interconnections and crossed paths, between Eastern Tantra and the Western psycho-analytic and psycho-spiritual traditions. I especially appreciate his focus on the transpersonal, the psyche / psychic components and ultra-reaches of our consciousness, not at all wary of introducing non-locality and quantum physics into our evolving understanding of reality.
His presentation mirrors the deep and detailed, sometimes airily symbolic, dynamic and varied mix of characters and focus the place held. Intense and at times dizzyingly colorful and dramatic, those players acted out karma and healed wounds unabashedly, held in the wild juxtaposition of forest meeting the sea, steep cliffs and cryptic hot spring baths. There was grace and there was error and there was tons of synchronicity, highlighted by Kripal's explanations of different decades and the meaning in what was gained and lost in each.
(So many implications and nods to the boundaries or lack thereof in our shared experience and the need to push them, find them, know them and when needed, re-create them.)
I also appreciated his honesty in pointing out the lack of cultural diversity and the access disparity,
(financials) when the San Fransisco center shut down. I'm hoping the 'movement' will continue on there, safely and with integrity, as this generation continues to battle cost-prohibitive healing/respite options and cultural barriers.
Overall, a pleasant, educational literary adventure for me, in knowing more fully the personalities and stories that helped shape our current era of enlightenment here in the West.
short) on contributing to the understanding of our lived experience as both divine and human beings.
He does a nice job of illustrating the parallels and connections and literal interconnections and crossed paths, between Eastern Tantra and the Western psycho-analytic and psycho-spiritual traditions. I especially appreciate his focus on the transpersonal, the psyche / psychic components and ultra-reaches of our consciousness, not at all wary of introducing non-locality and quantum physics into our evolving understanding of reality.
His presentation mirrors the deep and detailed, sometimes airily symbolic, dynamic and varied mix of characters and focus the place held. Intense and at times dizzyingly colorful and dramatic, those players acted out karma and healed wounds unabashedly, held in the wild juxtaposition of forest meeting the sea, steep cliffs and cryptic hot spring baths. There was grace and there was error and there was tons of synchronicity, highlighted by Kripal's explanations of different decades and the meaning in what was gained and lost in each.
(So many implications and nods to the boundaries or lack thereof in our shared experience and the need to push them, find them, know them and when needed, re-create them.)
I also appreciated his honesty in pointing out the lack of cultural diversity and the access disparity,
(financials) when the San Fransisco center shut down. I'm hoping the 'movement' will continue on there, safely and with integrity, as this generation continues to battle cost-prohibitive healing/respite options and cultural barriers.
Overall, a pleasant, educational literary adventure for me, in knowing more fully the personalities and stories that helped shape our current era of enlightenment here in the West.
May 27, 2025
I thought this was an interesting deep dive into a place that had (until now) just been a sign on the highway to me. Kripal is extremely passionate about the subject and has clearly done a lot of research and data/artifact collection, and it is cool to see such a detailed output.
I really enjoyed the first half of this book, which mainly covered the set of spiritual and experiential foundations of the institute. I thought the author did a great job connecting the variety of traditions that informed the mental models and work of the institute's founders and central characters. After that, it felt like the book became a lot more scattered. I wish that it either felt like a coherent narrative or a survey, as it felt like something in the middle that was a lot harder to parse and contextualize. Also, I found the back half of the book a bit dense and repetitive. Maybe someone with more context about the institute would have enjoyed these sections more than I did.
After reading this book, I did some more searching about the institute and learned about controversies surrounding women and marginalized people. While Kripal does not completely ignore these situations in his book, I wish there had been more attention paid to this as I feel like we spend a lot of the book reveling in the institute's glory without asking deeper questions.
I am glad I learned more about the institute even if I wish this book had been a little different, but maybe it just was not meant for me.
I really enjoyed the first half of this book, which mainly covered the set of spiritual and experiential foundations of the institute. I thought the author did a great job connecting the variety of traditions that informed the mental models and work of the institute's founders and central characters. After that, it felt like the book became a lot more scattered. I wish that it either felt like a coherent narrative or a survey, as it felt like something in the middle that was a lot harder to parse and contextualize. Also, I found the back half of the book a bit dense and repetitive. Maybe someone with more context about the institute would have enjoyed these sections more than I did.
After reading this book, I did some more searching about the institute and learned about controversies surrounding women and marginalized people. While Kripal does not completely ignore these situations in his book, I wish there had been more attention paid to this as I feel like we spend a lot of the book reveling in the institute's glory without asking deeper questions.
I am glad I learned more about the institute even if I wish this book had been a little different, but maybe it just was not meant for me.
September 28, 2017
It took me three renewals of checking out this book in order to get through half of it. The writer plods through detail making reading like slogging through a morass of places, times, individuals and concepts. I wanted to read the history of Esalen the Institute and place because I am a product of the 1960's and that is when Esalen started. I actually visited it when it was just getting started because I'd moved to work and live in Big Sur. I was somewhat sad that a bunch of "wierdos" had taken over Big Sur Hot Springs and turned it into a "spiritual" development spa.
The book just didn't allow me the reader to perceive what was really happening during Esalen's formation and further development.. The author dives too deeply into personalities and jumps all over the place in time and space so it is utterly confusing. Both the scope and focus are lost in the jumble. Alas, I ended up having to look up Esalen on Wikipedia to get a more concise feel for what the place and movement was all about. Apologies to Mr. Kripal for all the work he put in trying to cover too much history with too little insight and summary.
The book just didn't allow me the reader to perceive what was really happening during Esalen's formation and further development.. The author dives too deeply into personalities and jumps all over the place in time and space so it is utterly confusing. Both the scope and focus are lost in the jumble. Alas, I ended up having to look up Esalen on Wikipedia to get a more concise feel for what the place and movement was all about. Apologies to Mr. Kripal for all the work he put in trying to cover too much history with too little insight and summary.
August 15, 2024
whew! took me basically a year to finish this (with huuuuge breaks in between) but it was worth it in the end. god damn i love an intellectual history, even better when it’s so exhaustive and well-written. truly didn’t even know that there were people out there writing this kind of historiography and this makes me excited to keep reading more about New Agers and the history of psychology and and and and
November 21, 2025
Parts were very interesting, but the author's prose style is pretty dense. The book could have been reduced by half if he'd eliminated all of his personal Tantric musings, which really don't have much to do with the story.
September 23, 2025
A somewhat interesting overview but it takes a LONG time to get through and felt overly hagiographic.
January 12, 2017
Not only a history of Esalen, but a history of the Human Potential movement at the same time. So interesting.
December 28, 2011
I have learned so much from this book this year! I read it rather exhaustively after I happened upon it while researching something else. It was like a small treasure of revelation about how religion has been developing in the United States. What I have always been running into was given definition. Kripal gives sympathetic definition to the "religion of no religion" of Emerson, Whitman, and the hippies of Big Sur that is intrinsically American, capitalist and democratic yet laced with Asian (Tantric), evolutionary, psyhic, psychological and gnostic influences. Esalen is a microcosm of what has been happening with "spirituality" since the 50's. This book reveals that is has also been an instigator of the search for the superhuman.
August 16, 2014
Interesting chronological walk through of Esalen. Lots of familiar names like Al Huang, Capra, Perls, Rolf, George Leonard, Maslow, Gia Fu Feng, along with Michael Murphy at the center.
What went on at Esalen certainly influenced me in the 70s, although I never went there or identified these streams with a particular place.
The book didn't give me a coherent idea of the place or its meaning. It rekindled some interest, but reinforced some scepticism about the woo-hoo nature of conference people and striving after magic and entry into psychic realms and immortality, along with lots of wild sex and drugs.
I will revisit some of Murphy's books, and see what I can make of them.
What went on at Esalen certainly influenced me in the 70s, although I never went there or identified these streams with a particular place.
The book didn't give me a coherent idea of the place or its meaning. It rekindled some interest, but reinforced some scepticism about the woo-hoo nature of conference people and striving after magic and entry into psychic realms and immortality, along with lots of wild sex and drugs.
I will revisit some of Murphy's books, and see what I can make of them.
September 29, 2015
I really enjoyed this engaging and comprehensive history of the founders of Esalen and the literary, psychological, and cultural discourses that sprung up around the Institute. I could have done without the long chapters going through founder Michael Murphy's speculative fiction...but other than that, Kripal presented lots of great food for thought regarding Tantra, American spirituality, and much else. The bibliography alone is a wealth of wonderful reference material.
August 7, 2012
Fascinating for bay area history buffs and dedicated counterculture history buffs, but very very thorough and long. Kripal is obviously quite taken with Esalen so he doesn't get into critical gender readings at all, despite the proliferation of hot waitresses braless under fishnet shirts in the Esalen 1970s.
August 15, 2012
For anyone wanting to understand how the human potential movement in this country began this is essential reading. Besides many fascinating stories the people involved become alive and are fascinating in their own right.
April 7, 2013
Was hard getting started but a book full of very important people who are involved in the evolution and innovative spiritual, intellectual pursuits of America and Beyond. A great historical perspective on the influences and outreach this school had and hopefully still has.
September 26, 2007
Great overview of a key part of the human potential movement...thrilling and funny.
Want to read
December 16, 2007Reviewed in New Yorker 9/24/2007
June 4, 2010
This book has been my guide through the strange and fascinating world of Esalen and has exposed me to so many new ideas and thinkers that I'm incredibly grateful to the author.
April 12, 2014
excellent book. nice complement to Albanese's "A republic or the Mind and Spirit".
June 2, 2014
I thought the book was way too long but I enjoyed it. Esalen has so much history on the coast in Big Sur, California! It was and is The Center for Theory and Research.
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