Voices of Esalen

Janet Stone is a beloved yoga teacher and longtime faculty at the Esalen Institute. Janet grew up on a self-described “slightly crazy hippie farm” in Northern California, where she ate tofu, baled hay, and cleaned rabbit cages. As an adult she spent eleven inspiring years in film and TV production, then traveled the world, visiting New Zealand, Egypt, and then northern India, where she began her y...

Pico Iyer is a British-born essayist and novelist, known for his outstanding travel writing. Iyer was a King's Scholar at Eton College, and was awarded a Congratulatory Double First in English Literature at Oxford University, then received his second master's in literature at Harvard. Iyer has known the 14th Dalai Lama since he was in his late teens, when he accompanied his father to Dharamshala,...

Stanislav Grof is not only one of the godfathers of psychedelic psychotherapy -- not only one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology -- not only a renowned researcher into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness to gain insights into the human psyche -- he was an integral part of the fabric of the Esalen Institute during the 1970's and 1980's, helping to shape the culture...

Ken Dychtwald is a lifelong friend of Esalen and certified amazing guy. Besides being the best-selling author of more than ten books, he's a ground-breaking gerontologist, a psychologist, an educator, a professional lecturer (one of the best to ever pick up a microphone), a superb storyteller, a consultant to several White House administrations, an amazing father and husband -- and apart from all...

Bob Walter is the executive director and board president of the Joseph Campbell foundation. Walter was Joseph Campbell’s editor for the last ten years of his life and the editorial director of "The Historical Atlas of World Mythology." Following Campbell’s death in 1987, he served as literary executor of Campbell’s estate, and continues to oversee the publication of Joseph Campbell’s writings. We...

Jean Houston is an interdisciplinary thinker and author, known for her ability to weave history, culture, spirituality, and science. While participating in a US Government-sanctioned research project on the effects of LSD (before such research was banned), Houston became acquainted with Robert Masters, a writer and a researcher into the varieties of human behavior and potentials. The two married i...

Steven Harper is a wilderness guide, author, artist, and longtime teacher at the Esalen Institute. He focuses on wild nature as a vehicle for awakening; his work is inspired by a deep connection to inner wild nature. Steven is a contributor to the emerging field of ecopsychology, and has written at length on the subject. He was also a longtime student and close friend of Esalen founder Dick Price,...

Dorothy Charles writes, "The practice of being present is simple and not easy. We call it a practice because that’s what it takes – returning to the moment whenever I notice that I’m not present." Dorothy is a long-time and beloved teacher and Gestalt Practitioner at Esalen since 1985, where she continues to lead workshops and training groups. Dorothy received her training at Esalen with Richard a...

Dr. Kristin Neff writes, "Self-compassion involves acting the same way towards yourself when you are having a difficult time, fail, or notice something you don’t like about yourself. Instead of just ignoring your pain with a “stiff upper lip” mentality, you stop to tell yourself “this is really difficult right now,” how can I comfort and care for myself in this moment?" In this conversation, Krist...

David Crow is one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of botanical medicine and grassroots healthcare. He is a master herbalist, aromatherapist and acupuncturist with over 30 years experience in the Ayurvedic and Chinese medical systems, as well as a renowned author, poet, and co-founder of The Learning Garden at Venice High School in Los Angeles, one of the country's largest and most suc...

Digital Raign is a conference that recently convened at Esalen with the intention of creating an "experiential ecosystem," dedicated to exploring the links between Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain Technology, and essential human nature. Co-founders Alison Raby, founder of Mariposa Search, LifeBeforeDeath and Co-Founder of Wisdompreneurs, and James Hanusa, cul...

Today we take a small step back in time to speak with Phillip Burrus, longtime member of the Esalen community and former Executive Chef. Recorded in the spring of 2017, only days before Phillip and his wife Isabel Chave-Manso set off for the next chapter of their lives in Spain, we spoke at length about Phillip's take on sustainability, the importance of locally-grown produce in food preparation,...

Byron Katie was severely depressed in her early thirties. For almost a decade, she spiraled down into rage and self-loathing, battling constant thoughts of suicide. Then one morning in February 1986, she experienced a life-changing realization: "I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn't believe them, I didn't suffer. Freedom is as simple as that. I found tha...

Noah Levine is a punk, a father, a remarkable teacher of Buddhism, and the author of the books Dharma Punx, Against the Stream, The Heart of the Revolution, and Refuge Recovery. His memoir, Dharma Punx, details teenage years filled with drugs, violence, incarceration and suicide attempts - as well as his path to vipassana meditation. During our far-ranging conversation, we discussed what it means...

Michael Murphy is the co-founder of the Esalen Institute, a key figure in the Human Potential Movement and an extraordinary human being. He is the author of many remarkable books, including Golf in the Kingdom, The Future of the Body, Jacob Atabet, and In the Zone: Transcendent Experience in Sports. Today we spoke about the 1960's and how Esalen was born, touching upon his encounters with notables...

Jeff Kripal is the Chairman of the Board of the Esalen Institute and holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University. His fascinating work includes the history of psychic phenomena, comparative erotics and ethics in mystical literature, American countercultural translations of Asian religions, and the Esalen Institute itself. He is the author of the foundati...

Shauna Shapiro, Ph. D. is an internationally recognized expert on mindfulness. She is also a licensed clinical psychologist, an Associate Professor of Psychology at Santa Clara University, and the co-author of the books "The Art and Science of Mindfulness" and "Mindful Discipline: A Loving Approach to Setting Limits and Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child." Shauna and I discussed a way into m...

Paul Selig is considered one of the foremost mediums working today. He is the author of several rather extraordinary works of channeled literature, including I Am the Word, The Book of Love and Creation, The Book of Knowing and Worth, and The Book of Mastery. I spoke to Paul at length about the work he'd done before becoming a medium (he was a well-known playwright, as well as the director of the...

Caroline Harvey is an accomplished poet and educator whose work explores ideas of the sacred and the profane. Nominated for the 2013 Best Poets Award and a 2012 Pushcart Prize, she has shared stages and classrooms with Alicia Keys, Livingston Taylor, Melissa Ferrick, Donna De Lory, and Yasiin Bey (Mos Def, and is dedicated to conscious evolution and intelligent rebellion. Over the course of our co...

This week's episode is a special one - brilliant writers Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond are actually hosts of another podcast, Dear Sugar Radio, and they are so excellent at banter and speaking articulately that all I had to do was get out of the way and let them do their thing. And I'm so glad I did. You probably know Cheryl Strayed from her memoir, #1 New York Times Bestseller, Wild; she is als...

Mark Whitwell is a brilliant yogi and an impassioned teacher, the student of Krishnamacharya, and an all-around funny, sweet, wonderful dude. I was privileged enough to sit with him for an afternoon, hear him play his sitar, and speak about many topics, chief among them his book, "The Promise of Love, Sex, and Intimacy: How a Simple Breathing Practice Will Enrich Your Life Forever." Our music toda...

Alexandra Katehakis is the Founder and Clinical Director of the Center for Healthy Sex in Los Angeles and the author of Erotic Intelligence: Igniting Hot, Healthy Sex While in Recovery from Sex Addiction. She's also the co-author of the award-winning daily meditation book, Mirror of Intimacy: Daily Reflections on Emotional and Erotic Intelligence, from which she reads during our far-reaching inter...

"The purpose of THE MAX is to discover yourself beyond who you know yourself to be. It is a voyage through your own humanity—a journey to discover the extent of your self-expressive power." Paula Shaw has been leading a workshop called "The Max" at Esalen for nearly 30 years. Today, we talk to her about the roots of The Max, touching upon her history with est and her experiences with the Actor's T...

Ian-Michael Hebert is the former Property Development Manager at the Esalen Institute. In 2016 he spoke to us about the state of Esalen's renewal, the challenges and triumphs of sustainable building, and plans for the future. We talk about Stanislav Grof's holotropic breathing, shamanic portals, perinatal matrices, re-experiencing one's own birth, fatherhood and how amazing it is, visions of a pos...

Dr. Sam Berne is known internationally as a pioneer in vision science, integrative health, and subtle energy therapies. He has developed innovative methods for healing the mind-body-spirit through eye therapy. We go through a process together where he offers concrete techniques to strengthen my vision while exploring somato-emotional territory. It's super cool.