Earth, Nature & Ecology
Internal use ONLY
Living Color: From Plant to Textile
With Janne Larsen
This immersive, hands-on workshop invites you to explore the vibrant spectrum of color hidden in the plants thriving along Esalen’s iconic coastline and within the Farm & Garden. Together, we’ll reconnect with ancient traditions of natural dyes while honoring the unique ecosystem of this sacred land. Over the course of the workshop, we’ll get our […]
From Plant to Paper: Making Botanical Inks
With Janne Larsen
Creating a profound connection to nature begins with observing and understanding the plants surrounding us, awakening to our symbiotic relationship with them. This workshop offers an opportunity to cultivate an intimate bond with a diverse selection of plants thriving in the Esalen landscape, learning their unique characteristics, stories, and the wisdom they impart. Together, we […]
Wild Pilgrimage: Backpacking Journey to Esalen
With Fletcher Tucker and Mike Smith
In the mountains east of Esalen, an enchanting, ecologically diverse, and psycho-spiritually fertile wilderness awaits. Over four nights and five days, we will engage in a contemporary form of pilgrimage, backpacking as reverent seekers through these ancestral lands of the Esselen Tribe, now known as Big Sur’s Ventana Wilderness. Our journey concludes at the coastal […]
Big Sur Wilderness Experience
With Steven Harper
Esalen is the trailhead to one of the most spectacular mountainous coastlines in the world. With the Big Sur wilderness as the primary teacher, participants will explore the beauty of this wild coast which includes ancient canyons of redwoods, dramatic coastal beaches, rugged rocky mountains, and soft grassy slopes. Drawing from nature and guided by […]
Erotic Ecology: Awakening the Senses and Healing Through Nature
With Lindsay Branham
Love is an ecological process. — Andreas Weber Most of us have lost our sensual connection to our bodies and to the living world. We have become numb to the Earth's touch. This week-long workshop offers an immersive, slow, and sensual experience in the erotic ecology pathway — a space to reawaken our sensory, pleasurable, […]
Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Doorway to Joy, Wisdom, and Wonder
With Mark Coleman and Lori Schwanbeck
...how easily you can belong to everything simply by listening. — David Whyte Held by the cliffs, verdant gardens, and vast Pacific horizon, this workshop invites you to slow down, awaken your senses, and rediscover your connection to the living world. Listening deeply to the life within us and around us, we are able to […]
Reunion with the Wild Earth: Hiking and Nature Connection in Big Sur
With Fletcher Tucker
How would it feel to move into a meaningful relationship with the living world? Beyond a mere passive appreciation of nature? In the long arc of human history, people across all cultures and traditions have lived in communion with the lands they called home. Though this intrinsic connection has been largely severed in our modern […]
Being Natural: A Meditation Retreat
With Chandra Easton
During this retreat, you’ll be invited to immerse yourself in your own innate wisdom to rediscover your freedom. Through Buddhist meditation, mindful movement, and time in nature, you’ll explore the spontaneous creative essence within you. Surrounded by the beauty of the natural world, this guided retreat is an opportunity to slow down, listen deeply, and […]
A Midsummer’s Dream: Flower Baths, Sound Journeys, and Herbal Magic
With Micha Merrick
Gather with us under the waxing full moon for a weekend of embodied ritual and communal celebration. While the flowers are in full bloom, the moon is bright, and the sun reaches its highest arc in the sky, we will circle together to honor the fullness of the light with sacred ceremony, flower baths, folklore, […]
Nature and Contemplation: Cultivating Wild Mindfulness
With Steven Harper and Gary Marcoccia
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed. — Mary Oliver From the beginning of time, the natural world has invited humans to pause, reflect, and reconnect with life’s essence. This workshop offers an opportunity to […]
Experiencing the Esalen Farm and Garden
With Candice Isphording, James House and Becca Gallagher
Have you ever wanted to learn how to grow your own food? Experience a dynamic week in the Esalen Farm and Garden and fully participate alongside our talented and experienced staff. Local food security is a major issue facing communities worldwide. It is said that there is no greater form of activism than growing one’s […]
Encountering the Animate World: Hiking and Animism in the Big Sur Wild
With Fletcher Tucker
The Big Sur wilderness lives and breathes, listens, and speaks. Beneath ancient redwood trees, a shimmering creek journeys toward the sea. In the oak woodland, a polyphony of birds sings to the rising sun. Fog dances across chaparral bluffs, caressing sagebrush and sandstone cliffs. Every cove, meadow, and forest of this biodiverse landscape is alive […]
Walk on the Wild Side: Exploring the Big Sur Country
With Steven Harper
"What’s the quickest way out of the city?" John Muir asked a stranger. "Where do you want to go?" the man replied. "Anywhere that is wild," said Muir. This week is simple and direct. Each day we step onto the mountain trails of Big Sur and walk into the living wild — breathing ocean air, […]
Experiencing the Esalen Farm and Garden
With Candice Isphording, James House and Becca Gallagher
Have you ever wanted to learn how to grow your own food? Experience a dynamic week in the Esalen Farm and Garden and fully participate alongside our talented and experienced staff. Local food security is a major issue facing communities worldwide. It is said that there is no greater form of activism than growing one’s […]
Awake in the Wild: Awareness in Nature as a Path of Belonging
With Mark Coleman and Lori Schwanbeck
What becomes possible when we slow down enough to truly listen to the living world? How might attentive presence become an expression of care and participation — a way of remembering our place within the larger community of life? On this retreat, we explore how mindfulness in nature is a deeply relational path, inviting intimacy, […]
Being Whole: Ritual, Respect, and Regulation
With Tracee Stanley and Elena Brower
You are invited into a practice of becoming whole through movement, stillness, and deep rest. Explore ritual, respect, and regulation as our equation for remembering and embodying wholeness within a supportive community. Each day, our sessions will blend movement, stillness, quietude, nature exploration, and time for silence and reflection. Guided meditations and yoga nidra will […]