Creativity & Culture
Website program category as of 2022
COME TOGETHER! A Festival of IntraConnectivity and Spirit | Day Pass
With Daniel Siegel, Elissa Epel, Little Bear Tom Nason, Rhonda V. Magee and Douglas Drummond
We live in times of high existential stress with both ever-increasing personal, societal, and global pressures and the constant pain of witnessing ecological crises and widespread social injustices. These challenges also create opportunities to reconsider our relationships to self, one another, and the planet — and to choose a life of peak purpose and interconnectedness. […]
COME TOGETHER! A Festival of IntraConnectivity and Spirit | ETMC Day Pass
With Daniel Siegel, Elissa Epel, Little Bear Tom Nason, Rhonda V. Magee and Douglas Drummond
We live in times of high existential stress with both ever-increasing personal, societal, and global pressures and the constant pain of witnessing ecological crises and widespread social injustices. These challenges also create opportunities to reconsider our relationships to self, one another, and the planet — and to choose a life of peak purpose and interconnectedness. […]
Cancelled | True Self Mastery: The Art and Practice of Living Well
With Anne Van de Water
Have you ever felt like you wanted to start over, or simply begin again – right now – in a more authentic, healthy, and sustainable way? One of the most consistent regrets of the dying is that they lacked the courage to live a life true to themselves. No matter what you have been through, […]
Heart, Broken, OPEN: Cultivating Emotional Balance
With Eve Ekman
Our emotions help us respond to the threats and opportunities in our daily lives and profoundly impact our individual and collective well-being. Feeling the joys and pains of our emotions is universal, yet what makes us emotional and how we respond is unique. We become emotional without our conscious awareness. Developing emotional awareness is like […]
Cancelled | Writing and Mindfulness: A Practice for Navigating Difficult Times
With Janis Cooke Newman
A daily writing practice and a consistent meditation practice have the power to ground us during difficult times. Writing gives us perspective and helps us make sense of the world. Mindfulness teaches us how to make space for the joy as well as the fear. This experiential meditation retreat and writing workshop invites writers and […]
Beyond Duality: Healing Wisdom and Ceremony for Personal Health and Well-being
With Erika Gagnon
Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey as we gather to look beyond the false duality of a divided self and the destructive concept of “self versus nature” to discover how to live in harmony and balance within ourselves and the world around us. You are your greatest healer and […]
We Are Earth, Air, Fire, and Water: Empowered Elemental Healing
With Erika Gagnon and Jovinna Chan
We are not separate from nature. We are nature. If we separate from nature, then we separate from ourselves. Join Erika Gagnon and Jovinna Chan for their first collaborative workshop: a dynamic weaving of ancient wisdom, somatic movement and dance, sound healing, breath practices, and traditional ceremonies and rituals. The four elements are the basis […]
Holotropic Breathwork®: Expanded States of Consciousness
With Stacia Butterfield
For thousands of years across many cultures, enhanced states of consciousness have been used as a strategy for meaningful transformation and self-exploration — marking life’s major transitions and rites of passage and deepening one’s connection to self, community, and the natural world. In this workshop, we will gather in the rich field of community for […]
Creative Catalyst: The Transformative Power of Making Art
With Dana Albany and Michael "Flash" Hopkins
The Artist lives within everyone! Art can be made out of just about anything! It’s a time to leave the critic behind and allow oneself to play, nourish, and replenish the creative spirit. It’s also a time to enjoy the company and camaraderie of like-minded peers. Now is your time to discover the joys of […]
Awe and Wonder: An Exploration Through Science, Contemplation, and Expressive Writing
With Dacher Keltner and Mollie McNeil
Awe is the feeling of encountering vast mysteries that transcend our current knowledge and understanding of the world. In its greatest sense, it is an astonished and transformative appreciation for the moral beauty of others, for nature, for the arts — and is always rooted in a spiritual understanding of life. In this new, paradigm-shifting […]
Designing the Life We Want
With Mark Nicolson
Have you created the impact you want? Are you showing up the way you’d like? Are you going in the right direction? You have never before been where you are right now. You have never been the age you are today, never had the experiences you now possess. This is your time to pause and […]
Creative Path: Hiking and Artistic Connection on the Big Sur Coast
With Fletcher Tucker and Noël Vietor
Sitting in stillness to draw a flower, tracing the mountain’s slope with brushstrokes by eye, following the sound of waves down corridors of memory, and free association through writing – these are gestures of connection as much as they are creative acts. Join us for an intimate creative workshop on the enchanted grounds of Esalen […]
Poetry and the Page: Writing as a Healing Path
With Heidi Rose Robbins
We are going to write. We are going to gather and fill our notebooks with prose, poetry, and possibility. The moment we dare to show up on a blank page, we begin to transform our pain and fear. We reclaim energy when we write our truths. The page is a great reflection of our inner […]
Embodied Voice
With The Brothers Koren
Come home to your whole body instrument and discover your unique sound! Isaac and Thorald Koren have been guiding people home to their voices for over 20 years, through their original embodied approach. They both believe singing and speaking are radical acts of self-expression and that exploring your instrument with full freedom takes tremendous courage. […]
Art As A Spiritual Path: Discovering Your Creative Mandala
With Paul Heussenstamm
For over 30 years, Paul Heussenstamm has been traveling worldwide and teaching Art as a Spiritual Path. His beautiful soul mandalas have been created by individuals who have never painted before, and others seeking to expand their creativity through mandala practice. Mandala painting is a genuine form of meditation, cultivating inner harmony as the mandala births […]
Maps to Ecstasy: A 5Rhythms® Mindfulness & Art Celebration
With Lucia Horan and Douglas Drummond
When we experience moments of ecstasy, we taste what life is meant to be. — Gabrielle Roth The 5Rhythms® maps hold all the information required to lead us where we want to go. What is your destination? There is a science to achieving ecstatic states, and this is the mastery we have come to share. […]
Embodied Writing and Spiritual Practice
With Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Erik Davis
Part writing workshop and part tantric retreat, this unique practice week explores the relationship between personal writing and subtle body practices. Religious historian and Tantric practitioner Sravana Borkataky-Varma will lead experiential sessions largely stemming from Hindu Goddess Tantra practices. Award-winning author and scholar Erik Davis will then guide the group in reading and writing exercises, […]
Openness to Belonging Through Film: Transforming Intolerance by Embracing the Other
With Francis Lu
We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools. — Martin Luther King, Jr. Through mindful viewing of eight feature films — today’s vehicles of myth — participants will open their hearts to the quality of belonging with and to others that is so important in our time. We […]
The Essence of Esalen: Heart, Mind, Body, Spirit, Community
With Sadia Bruce, J.J. Jeffries, Cara Chandler and Jovinna Chan
Join us for an extended opportunity to explore the true essence of Esalen, and find yourself in the process. Like a snapshot of all that we do here on campus, this workshop is composed of enlivening and heart-opening classes that are driven by Esalen’s founding areas of focus: Heart, Mind, Body, Spirit, and Community. During […]
Empowering Creativity
With Daria Halprin
Since time immemorial, movement, dance, and the expressive arts have provided individuals and communities with a sense of soulful expression, healing, inspiration, spirit, and connection. We now need to reconnect with these ways more than ever. The Life/Art Process®, developed by Anna Halprin and Daria Halprin, bridges body awareness, art expression, and psychological processes, providing […]
Holotropic Breathwork®: Expanded States of Consciousness
With Stacia Butterfield
For thousands of years across many cultures, enhanced states of consciousness have been used as a strategy for meaningful transformation and self-exploration — marking life’s major transitions and rites of passage and deepening one’s connection to self, community, and the natural world. In this workshop, we will gather in the rich field of community for […]
Wisdom and Medicine of the Earth: Healing The Planet And Ourselves
With Lindsay Branham
Are you feeling the existential impacts of climate imbalance, global crises, and so much more? Are you seeking sustainable ways to care for both yourself and the Earth? This workshop, led by Cambridge University psychologist and eco-doula Lindsay Branham, will equip you with somatic and contemplative tools to explore your own relationship with the Earth. […]
Unlock Your Intuitive Mind: Tap into Your Higher Consciousness
With William Donius
Learn to call on your spirit guides and tap into your intuitive mind. Join us in a transformative workshop combining scientifically proven brain-enhancing techniques with intuitive guidance to help you break free from self-limiting patterns and create the life you desire. This workshop brings together two powerful approaches to help you develop tools for personal […]
Queer Liberation: Setting Your Inner Child Free Through Creative Expression
With Adam Clark and Udim Isang
How much joy we experience in life is limited by our ability to show up each day with unapologetic authenticity. For many people who identify as LGBTQIA2S+, feeling safe or supported to live authentically may not have been an option. As a result, many of us live disempowered lives— stuck in jobs, relationships, and routines […]
Mosaic Art: Patterns in Nature
With Wilma Wyss
Nature provides us with space to quiet our souls, gain perspective, and harness our creativity. Explore Esalen’s stunning grounds to find places that resonate and inspire your mosaic art, be it big vistas, small individual succulents, or anything in between. Mosaic is a slow and contemplative art form, perfectly suited for Esalen’s restorative setting. In […]
Afro Flow Yoga: Release, Flow and Heal Our Sacred Waters
With Leslie Salmon Jones and Jeff W. Jones
Join us for a weekend to remember as we delve into the depths of the human soul, guided by the visionary founders of Afro Flow Yoga®. This workshop is an immersive experience weaving together the healing powers of yoga, dance, live music, and the ancient wisdom of African and Indigenous cultures. Together, we will embark […]
Source to Screen: Accessing, Manifesting, and Transmitting Great Ideas
With Paola di Florio and Peter Rader
This immersive week-long lab is for creators of all kinds––writers, inventors, filmmakers, musicians, and entrepreneurs––anyone who wishes to integrate their spirituality and creativity to tap into the deepest source of inspiration and higher intelligence as they bring guided work into the world. In the words of Carl Jung, “People don't have ideas. Ideas have people.” […]
The Buddha, the Brain, and Bach: Exploring Practice in Mind, Music, and Life
With Barbara Bogatin, Nikki Mirghafori and Clifford Saron
You are what you practice. Or, as the Buddha said, “Whatever you frequently reflect and ponder upon, that becomes the inclination of your mind.” This essential observation is examined from our intertwined perspectives on contemplative practice, brain science, and music. Through interactive inquiries and guided meditations, Nikki Mirghafori will lead a journey into mindfulness and […]
Beyond Duality: Healing Wisdom and Ceremony for Personal Health and Well-Being
With Erika Gagnon
Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey as we gather to look beyond the false duality of a divided self and the destructive concept of “self versus nature” to discover how to live in harmony and balance within ourselves and the world around us. You are your greatest healer and […]
Tantra: Freedom, Embodiment, and Transformation
With Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Keith Edward Cantú
Have you ever dived into the ocean of Tantra? Join Tantric scholar-practitioners Sravana Borkataky-Varma and Keith Edward Cantú as we explore Tantric practices and perspectives on topics like freedom from external interference and self-sovereignty (Sanskrit svādhikāra), the link between physical and so-called “subtle bodies,” and the creation of physical mandalas (maṇḍala) or circles and other […]
Art as Medicine
With Daria Halprin
“If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for?” –Alice Walker How can art contribute to healing while staying centered in the creative process? What kind of art-making responds to the therapeutic experience? What does it mean to live an aesthetic life? And what is possible when we do? In the […]
Designing the Life We Want: Self Renewal in the Fall
With Mark Nicolson
Have you created the impact you want? Are you showing up the way you’d like? Are you going in the right direction? You have never before been where you are right now. You have never been the age you are today, never had the experiences you now possess. This is your time to pause and […]
Harnessing the Power of Creation through African Ritual
With Marques Redd
Open to people of all backgrounds and experience levels, this workshop will explore the lessons that traditional African spirituality can teach us about creation, how the universe was brought into being, how to manifest things we want in the world, and how to fashion a life filled with divine harmony. It will first introduce the […]
Healing Waters: Rites of Passage & the Embodied Masculine
With Douglas Drummond and Little Bear Tom Nason
Join us for this unique opportunity to explore the masculine traditions of the Esselen Tribe, integrated with the fundamentals of the 5Rhythms® movement practice. Answer the call of 55000 Highway 1’s healing waters and travel with Douglas and Little Bear on a hero’s journey. Together, we will explore what it means to embody the sacred […]
The Healing Voice: Exploring the Sonic Anatomy
With The Brothers Koren and Eileen McKusick
What if you could use your voice to feel alive and present in your body? What would it look like to discover your own voice and fulfill its unique potential? This November, join sound therapy pioneer Eileen McKusick and transformational voice leaders and international recording artists Isaac and Thorald Koren of the Brothers Koren in […]
The Essence of Esalen: Heart, Mind, Body, Spirit, Community
With Sadia Bruce, J.J. Jeffries, Cara Chandler and Jovinna Chan
Join us for an extended opportunity to explore the true essence of Esalen, and find yourself in the process. Like a snapshot of all that we do here on campus, this workshop is composed of enlivening and heart-opening classes that are driven by Esalen’s founding areas of focus: Heart, Mind, Body, Spirit, and Community. During […]
Unlock the Storyteller Within through Writing and Yoga
With Darnell Lamont Walker and Cara Chandler
Somewhere inside you - buried deeply, or maybe just below the surface - there is a story you’ve been wanting to tell. Movement and mindfulness practices are carefully curated to support moving past your creative obstacles and connect you with your inner voice. We invite you to connect to that deeper authentic story and that […]
Gratitude for Our Ancestors: Healing Our Lineage & Ourselves
With Erika Gagnon
Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey as we gather to look at our ancestral lineage and how our ancestors continue to influence and affect our lives today. Gratitude for our ancestors! We are the reality of their dreaming. We are the tip of the arrow of our entire ancestral […]