Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #567404 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 594 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Many readers will probably not have heard of Esalen—but that doesn't mean they won't find its history fascinating. Esalen is a legendary sacred place, but legendary among the privileged few like Aldous Huxley, Henry Miller and Joseph Campbell, for whom Esalen was a spiritual playground. Kripal, a professor of religious studies at Rice University, tells the story of this beautiful retreat in California's Big Sur region—its history at once sexy, salacious, intellectual and political—with reverence and playfulness, alternating between the hushed tones of awe and the glee of partaking in Esalen's infamous sinful delights. The community itself, Kripal explains, is centered around the idea of a "religion of no religion," which provides "a kind of American Mystical Constitution" for its visitors and "a spiritual space where almost any religious form can flourish." Kripal jumps among a wide range of historical moments, from Esalen's alleged relationship to the collapse of the Soviet Union to the idea of the disembodied erotic. Readers shouldn't be scared off by the book's heft. Kripal is an engaging storyteller, Esalen a worthy subject (a kind of Us Weekly for the discerning intellectual), and it's as easy to jump from the introduction to chapter 14 as it is to continue in order. (Apr.)
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Review
"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 "Kripal tells the story of this beautiful retreat in California's Big Sur region - its history at once sexy, salacious, intellectual and political - with reverence and playfulness.... He is an engaging storyteller and Esalen a worthy subject (a kind of Us Weekly for the discerning intellectual)." - Publishers Weekly "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"

Review
"This is it: the definitive history of the original American human potential center and the people who first envisioned it and made it work. A truly astonishing story of spiritual inspiration, global vision, political adventure, and delightful humor, and just at the right time. A genuinely hopeful vision of what we yet could be in the mirror of what we have been. Stunning."-Deepak Chopra (Deepak Chopra )

"In this engaging book, Jeffrey Kripal assesses one of the world's most engaging places, and finds in Esalen a perfect metaphor for America's unique creed of science and religion. Here-literally on the western edge of the North American continent-the European enlightenment meets Asian spirituality, Einstein confronts Walt Whitman, Calvinism takes on mysticism, and secularism encounters the divine. It's a wild ride, filled with ironies and tensions, but it's also America at the start of the twenty-first century, and perhaps the future of the world."-Robert B. Reich (Robert B. Reich )

"Kripal tells the story of this beautiful retreat in California's Big Sur region-its history at once sexy, salacious, intellectual and political-with reverence and playfulness. . . . He is an engaging storyteller, Esalen a worthy subject (a kind of Us Weekly for the discerning intellectual), and it's as easy to jump from the introduction to chapter 14 as it is to continue in order."-Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly )

"In this history of the institute, readers will take a spellbinding journey through art, pop psychology, Tantric sex, Cold War physics, psychedelic drugs, and, of course, religion. Kripal becomes a raconteur of stories involving a cast of characters-from folk singer Joan Baez and Gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson to gay bathers, Hell's Angels, and others attracted to the coast of California's Big Sur country. Kripal explains the institute's mixing of popular and political culture with the transformative spiritual practices of humanistic alternative education; its embodiment of East/West philosophies and dedication to the continual exploration of human potential. Upon finishing this book, readers will feel compelled to visit this remarkable place, where all are accepted."-Library Journal (Library Journal )

"An impressive new book ... [Esalen] is, by many accounts, the birthplace of the human potential movement, which advocates the raising of spiritual consciousness, human functioning, mystical awareness, and interpersonal connection. [Kripal] has written the definitive intellectual history of the ideas behind the institute."-Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle (Don Lattin San Francisco Chronicle )

"Esalen Institute is a combination alt-think tank, academic community and sensual retreat perched on the Pacific-facing cliffs of Big Sur, California. Its thinkers formed the leading edge of American culture for decades. Here was ground zero of the 1960s social revolution: the sweaty hot-tub commingling of free love, tantric yoga, Buddhist meditation and Gestalt therapy-as well as the academy for the propagation of the human-potential movement. Outlaw all-stars like Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg and Hunter S. Thompson felt the pull of the place. Now scholar Jeffrey 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 (Playboy )

"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. That he reconciles all this while barely batting an eye is remarkable; that he does so while writing with such �lan is nothing short of wondrous. This essential volume achieves what Esalen itself ultimately couldn't sustain: a true gestalt."-Atlantic Monthly (Atlantic Monthly )

"This history of the Esalen Institute describes how the Big Sur hot springs became a crucible for a brand of secular metaphysics known at ''the religion of no religion.'' Founded in the early 1960s, Esalen drew eccentrics and artists like Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Henry Miller, and Joan Baez, and soon became a sort of sybaritic commune, where life consisted, according to Kripal, of ''sodomy in the baths, glossolalia in the lodge, fistfights in the parking lot, folk music in the cabins, and meditation in the Big House.'' ".-New Yorker (New Yorker )

"Although several memoirs by participants and popular histories of Esalen and its creative role in American culture are available, this book is nothing less than the gold standard. Essential." (Choice )

"I savored every page of this exquisitely crafted book. . . . Wisely, Kripal--having given the fairest and most comprehensive account of the Esalen story we will probably ever see--does not make any judgment." (Harvey Cox The Sixties )

"Kripal''s documentary style is eminently suited to decribing the events and people that have made the Esalen Institute a place like no other. This makes his book an engaging read. . . . A well-crafted chronicle that will be of great interest to anybody curious about the emergence of the counterculture and of contemporary ''alternative'' religion." (Olav Hammer History of Religions )

Customer Reviews

No One Captures the Flag!
I was fortunate enough to have spent this past weekend at Esalen picked up a copy of Jeffrey Kripal's book and I could not put it down! This book is a must read for those wanting to know more about this amazing place and it's impact on American culture and the future of the planet. Esalen: America and The Religion of No Religion chronicles the history of an unique experiment conceived by two visionary men, Michael Murphy and Richard Price. Esalen is one of a kind place that sits at the edge of the American frontier both geographically and intellectually. The land and it's hot springs have a long history as a place of ceremony and healing for the Esselen Indians and other indigenous people who lived there for thousands of years. In 1910, Dr. Henry Murphy, Michael's grandfather, purchased the property to make the curative waters of the hotspring available for his patients. It is on this magical land that the Esalen Institute now resides. The list of people who have visited and taught there over the years is a veritable who's who of some of the greatest minds of the 20th Century. It is a place that has a history of encouraging intellectual and spiritual diversity and different approaches to exploring the full range of human potential. Esalen has been and continues to be one of the most important cultural and spiritual centers of the world that is dedicated to the exploration of human possibilities. We live in world that is in desperate need of a vision of a positive future. Esalen is a place where this vision is likely to emerge.

Unacknowledged Cultural Incubator -- Esalen Institute


Kripal, Jeffrey J. (2007). Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion. University of Chicago Press. xiv + 573 pages. Includes bibliography and index. Cloth and paper.

I always like to see a topic that interests me embedded in a larger context. A wider context describes how the topic of my interest (psychedelics in this case) fits into historical events and into a more global collection of ideas (the human potential movement, in Esalen). By following the movement of ideas and people through Esalen Institute, Kripal constructs an intellectual and personal history of the Esalen as one spring whose waters both nourished and reflected the 60's, but more than that, of the 70s, 80s, 90's and 21st Century too.

He readily alerts readers that his story must omit some items that others would deem important, and that his organizing ideas track his attention to selected Esalen events. His four organizing idea-themes are: the religion of no religion (alternately, the religion of all religions), altered states of history, the tantric transmission, and the enlightenment of the body. "Esalen," as he describes it, "has dedicated itself to the fusing or synthesizing of the spiritual and scientific, of wonder and reason, of what an academic might call the humanities and the sciences." (page 13). He recognizes these significant aspects of Esalen, rather than the misleading garden of delights for hippies and upper middle class hangers-on that the popular press dwells on.

By tracking Esalen people as a history, Kripal gives not only a history of the place, but also a history of the human potential movement. Esalen combines both an adventurous think tank and a location for experiments in human interactions, where mind and body were not separated, but used to enhance each other. The leading character of the book is Michael Murphy, one of Esalen's founders and the only person appearing consistently throughout the book. While I expected Kripal's chapter-long discussions of Murphy's books to be dully laudatory, if not outright boring, I found his discussion of them an intriguing way to see Murphy's thinking and Esalen's activities as harmonious.

Readers on this list will be especially interested in two chapters on psychedelics' early days at Esalen and the chapter on Stan and Christina Grof, both for the psychedelic points and for displaying how psychedelics form part of the tantric transmission and enlightenment of the body. In the earlier chapter, Huxley, Watts, Leary, and Native American use of psychedelics appear as parts of a larger textile that wove together threads from Eastern religions, physical development routines, discoveries about the human body and brain, unusual abilities, and innovative forms of psychotherapy and growth techniques.

In the chapter that focuses on the Grofs, we see how their interests grew beyond psychedelics to include Eastern religions and developing ways to help people through spiritual crises. Kripal makes the surprising insight that Freud's idea of the unconscious as a cesspool of fear, lust, and destruction was, in fact, useful to the human potential movement because its main assumption is that we are not aware of much of our minds. But there is more to our unconscious than what Freud saw, so his work is primarily important not for what he specifically found about our minds, but because he set Western psychology looking for more, and some of what we've discovered forms part of the neglected human potential.

Besides psychedelics, other mindbody threads woven into the Esalen tapestry include aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Western religions; meditation, dreamwork, hypnosis, and additional altered-states psychotechnologies; aikido, breathing routines, Rolfing, massage, the martial arts, and other body-based growth; mythology, Jungian, humanistic psychology, transpersonal psychology, psychic phenomena, and additional intellectual approaches; Gestalt, encounter, family therapy, and group processes; influences on education, medicine, and even international relations -- the list goes on. Like a venture capital group that discovers, researches, and develops ideas for companies, Esalen explores and tries out ideas and practices for human growth. All of these --like Murphy's books Jacob Atabet and The Future of the Body--are examined as clues for the possible next stages of human evolution.

While most books to me would be twice as good if they were half as long, I was relieved to find Esalen's 468 pages of primary text a good read. I kept on reading "just one more section". Part of this goes to Kripal's ability to express ideas -- often flavored with his own perspective on his ideas -- entertaining and insightful. The chapter notes and list of resources confirm the depth of his research and are rich leads for others to follow.

After distracting, inaccurate, and exaggerated reports in the popular media during the 60s and subsequently, Kripal's Esalen counteracts press sensationalism. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise: shallow news reporters found shallowness at Esalen; deeper thinkers find deeper ideas and ideals. As a professor of religious studies at Rice University, Kripal sees Esalen as "one of America's most sophisticated mystical expressions." (page 24). That is, Esalen documents the spiritual quest for the fullest human fulfillment, and Kripal points out it is a combined mind-plus-body task.

Psychedelicists, who share a sense of unity and oneness, will see Esalen as fostering these directions, as mentioned above "dedicated itself to the fusing or synthesizing of the spiritual and scientific, of wonder and reason, of what an academic might call the humanities and the sciences." (page 13). Esalen, the book, does good service of setting the record straight about Esalen, the Institute.

Not objective enough....
The author sometimes has trouble with choppy writing, and overly long sentences. However, for the most part his subject matter is interesting enough that the issues of writing can be overlooked, However, what was annoying to me was his impression or conviction that everything and everybody "really" were experiencing Hindu Tantric experiences. This occurs despite the fact that no one he writes about saw themselves that way, used the terms, or followed that path. However, the author has followed that path - and that's all that matters. If he was a Christian no doubt everything would "really" be about Christ's manifestation at Esalen. I have no trouble with the concepts of Tantra - I practice Buddhist Tantra - but we cannot impose our own business or spiritual position on the subject matter when proposing the write a history.

Other than this issue - which was more annoying than anything else - the book is pretty good. Upstart Spring might be better.