Esalen Institute

Now, X-Men, he writes about X-Men quite a bit.

He wrote the history of Esalen.

He's on the board of Esalen.

X-Men is – very much reflects the kind of human potential movement ideology on the West Coast.

It was kind of – he writes about it as very much a parallel movement on the East Coast that was associated with comic books and – But it's increasingly been externalized, as they say.

But it was also incredibly inspiring.

In 1973, amid Halifax's personal crisis, she and Groff went to Esalen, the experimental community on the cliffs of Big Sur in California, where psychedelics mingled with Zen and other contemplative traditions.

There, she designed and produced Buddhism in Mind, a month-long gathering of teachers and scholars.

During the program, she confided to Jack Kornfield, a young American Buddhist teacher recently returned from monastic training in Asia.

And those skills are really helpful when you are living with somebody, when you're... creating a life for somebody

yeah and we very much connected with dance with each other just like just the zoned in when we were danced together we we met um we were in the same workshop at esalen institute and it was a it was like a movement improv workshop where it was a two-month workshop and And it was where movement, authentic movement would come.

You know, authentic movement does not look pretty at all.

And for me, that was really challenging because I'm a dancer.

And he was like, hey, I'd like want to give this back to you.

And like two or three years ago, I was out at the Esalen Institute and Big Sur.

Oh, you can't see that.

That's the title of the thing.

And he was like, hey, I'd like want to give this back to you.

And like two or three years ago, I was out at the Esalen Institute and Big Sur.

Oh, you can't see that.

That's the title of the thing.

And either way, I think it's equally concerning.

And then we have on top of that, we know that Ross Colthart, David Grush, and Jake Barber, there's that famous photo of them sitting crisscross applesauce at Esalen Institute.

And everyone's like – I don't even know what that meeting is or what it's about, but I can only assume they're talking about some sort of psionic, like psychic aspect to this phenomenon.

And I don't know, man.

She's tagged on our Instagram.

And if you want to experience her in person, she has two erotic ecology retreats coming up next year, one in California at Esalen in January, one at Hollyhock in BC in August.

Check them out, both in the show notes.

As always, if you'd like to support our show, there are so many ways that you can help and encourage us.