Gabrielle Roth

so it's a, it's a, I guess it's a metho- methodology you could call it.

Um, it was created by this woman named Gabrielle Roth, and it's essentially like a way of orienting yourself through life, and it's a w-

Mm

... it's what, what's called a wave.

Ellen's fascinating journey includes gestalt, breathwork, continuum practices, five rhythms, Esalen massage, spiritual practice, psychedelic exploration, sound, movement, and hands-on healing.

Along the way, she studied with figures including Stan and Christina Groff, Gabrielle Roth, Emily Conrad, Terence McKenna, and brother David Steindl Rast, eventually coming to think of Esalen as an unaccredited graduate school in universal consciousness study.

Ellen was also my own gateway into Esalen, as my first Esalen massage teacher, along with Perry and Johanna Holloman.

and she and I have remained connected over the years.

In terms of the exposure to five rhythms, did you meet Gabrielle at Esalen? I was in love with her from the get-go.

Okay.

Gabrielle Roth, she and Stan were my major influences back in those days.

As far as using breath and sound and music and movement and body, I viewed those as the same work.

Mm.

And, "Let the soft belly of the body love what it loves." But I actually have a quote from Gabrielle Roth, who developed the five rhythms, and quote, poem, I'm not sure, but I love this.

"In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: 'When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?'"

silence?'"I like, I like that, especially the when did you stop dancing part.

Well, what is your channel? What is your way of alchemizing complex negative so-called emotions or states that could be overwhelming were you not to have any way of contacting them? Dance, have you ever noticed how powerful dance is for moving through? I'm thinking of a friend of my, old friend of mine, her name's Maya, and her and her husband lead these like tantric, I don't know.

It's kind of reminds me of like, I don't know exactly what it is that they're doing, but it's called like Gabrielle Roth's The Wave.

I don't know if you ever there's these movements that people work through in the wave dance classes.

And I did them every day in my living room at night while I was in graduate school by myself.