Esalen : America and the religion of no religion / Jeffrey J. Kripal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kripal, Jeffrey J. (Jeffrey John), 1962- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Esalen Institute.

Religion and culture--United States.

Religion and culture.

United States--Religion.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 575 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Summary:

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

Contents:

Openings : Introduction: on wild facts and altered categories

Geographic, historical, and literary orientations (1882-1962)

Slate's Hot Springs : homestead, family spa, literary paradise

The empowerment of the founders (1950-1960)

The professor and the saint : the early inspirations of Michael Murphy

Buddhism, breakdown, breakthrough : the early inspirations of Richard Price

The outlaw era and the American counterculture (1960-1970)

"Totally on fire" : the experience of founding Esalen

Mind manifest : psychedelia at early Esalen and beyond

Mesmer to Maslow : energy and the Freudian left

Perls to Price: consciousness and the gestalt lineage

Esalen goes to the city: the San Francisco center

On ecstasy, education, and the end of sex : George Leonard and the human potential

The serpent spine of spirit and sex : Don Hanlon Johnson and the somatics movement

The occult imaginal and Cold War activism (1970-1985)

The cosmic womb : Stanislav and Christina Grof and the counsels of spiritual emergence

Golf in the kingdom : Plato and Ramakrishna for Republicans

Jacob Atabet and the Tantra of physics

Superpowers : Cold War psychics and citizen diplomats

Sex with the angels : nonlocal mind, UFOs, and an end to ordinary history

The Tao of Esalen : the spiritual art and intuitive business of managing emptiness

Crisis and the religion of no religion (1985-1993)

The religion of no religion : the Donovan era

Realizing Darwin's dream : the transformation project and the future of the body

Before and after the storm (1993-2006)

After the storm : reassessment, disaster, and renewal

(In)conclusion

The future of the past and the mystical idea of "America."

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 521-534) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-226-45371-5

OCLC:

1444516123