Spiritual & Wisdom Traditions
Internal use ONLY
Tibetan Yoga and the Subtle Body
With James Bae
Tibetan yoga is a powerful bridge between ancient wisdom and contemporary somatic healing. Rooted in movement, meditation, and subtle energetics, these practices engage not only the physical body but also the deeper layers of the subtle body — where trauma often lives. In Tibetan yoga, the subtle body is composed of energetic pathways through which […]
Healing Wisdom for Modern Times: You Are Your Greatest Healer
With Erika Gagnon
Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey, as we gather together and explore the healing wisdom of the “Americas.” We will learn about the importance of ancestral lineage, ceremonies and rituals, sacred altars, medicinal plants, and the origins of dis-ease in our physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual bodies. You are your […]
Esalen® Massage and Meditation
With Dean Marson and Brita Ostrom
Esalen Massage is a moving meditation, a practice in presence and mindfulness, and a sensory healing art. When practiced with focused attention, massage comes from a deep, quiet place that resides inside each of us. This practice of meditation also helps access our parasympathetic nervous system, where healing originates. As we give a massage, this […]
Crafting the Sacred Trilogy of Native American Instruments: Flute, Drum, and Rattle
With Guillermo Martinez
Join master craftsman and musician Guillermo Martinez for an unforgettable journey into the sacred traditions of Native American instrument making and music. This immersive, hands-on workshop invites you to reconnect with the spirit of sound by crafting three profound instruments: a Native American bamboo flute, a 16" elk-hide medicine drum, and a gourd crystal rattle. […]
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 […]
The Depths of Vision: Jung, Psychedelics, and the Practice of Integration
With John W. Price
Peak experiences and personal revelations can be dazzling, but the deeper work of transformation is often overlooked. Many have touched something sacred through psychedelics, mystical states, grief, love, or profound life transitions, yet are left with an unfinished question: How do I live in service to what I’ve seen? Rooted in Jungian psychology, contemplative practice, […]
Natural Healing: A Spiritual Journey of Return
With Michael Ventura and Margaret Harrsen
Healing ourselves is a journey of return. During this weekend workshop, you will be invited to learn about the practice and traditions of “curanderisma” (folk medicine) to bring forth awareness and attune us to our individual healing journeys. Through meditative and contemplative practices, touch, prayer, plants, and natural elements, this work honors a lineage of […]
The Power of Three: Tantra and the Energetic Body
With Sravana Borkataky-Varma
Do we possess only the physical body we see, or are there multiple layers to our existence? In the Tantric tradition, it is said we are not just one body but three: the physical body (what we see and touch), the subtle or energetic body (where thoughts, emotions, and prāṇa flow), and the causal body […]
A Solstice Ritual: Alchemy Singing Bowls and the Living Pattern of Light
With Deva Munay
Join us for a celebration of sound and light at the onset of summer, when sunlight stretches to its fullest. By honoring light in its many forms — sunlight, soul light, and vibrational light — this experiential retreat invites you to align with the light found within and through seven alchemy sound journeys, designed to […]
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, […]
Resting Into Radiance: Qigong, Breath, and Meditation
With Jim Gallas
Have you ever felt, even momentarily, that all is well within and around you? How do we cultivate this sense of deep presence and start to sustain it? This sense of presence is the foundation of awakening. The ancient practices of qigong, meditation, and breathwork open and harmonize the energy body so we might experience […]
Maps to Ecstasy: A 5Rhythms® Mindfulness Celebration
With Douglas Drummond and Lucia Horan
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. […]
Your Brain on Breath: Ancestral Technology for Healing and Transformation
With Sadia Bruce and Josh Brahinsky
Breath matters. It is one of the few human capacities that is at once biological, cultural, and sacred. Every breath connects physiology with perception — and with our shared search for meaning. It is a physiological necessity, a regulator of attention and awareness, and a primary medium through which humans have explored consciousness across time. […]
Cancelled | Meditation for Purpose, Joy, and Confidence
With Justin Michael Williams
Many people sense a quiet but persistent inner call — a longing toward a life that feels more true, more alive, more aligned. Yet fear, doubt, and long-held habits often keep us from trusting and acting on what we know inside. This workshop offers meditation as a practical, embodied pathway for reconnecting with purpose — […]
Yoga Nidra Retreat: Rest, Restore, and Remember Who You Are
With John Vosler
Experience five days of deep rest, reflection, and rejuvenation through movement, guided meditation, and the profound practice of Yoga Nidra. This workshop is designed to restore the body, clear the mind, and shift the habitual patterns that keep us from experiencing a state of calm, clarity, and balance. Yoga Nidra, which translates to "yogic sleep," […]
Fluidity in Motion: Presence, Play, and Spontaneous Awareness
With Deborah Eden Tull
Like flowing water, life is constantly changing, emergent, adaptable, and interconnected. With our bodies and the living process of the earth as our sacred laboratory, we will explore the dharma of fluidity. Through stillness and movement, contemplation and play, somatic inquiry and relational mindfulness, we will reawaken our cellular remembrance of flow. While the dominant […]
Deep Time: Slowing Down as a Revolutionary Act
With Deborah Eden Tull
Nature does not hurry and yet everything is completed. —Lao Tzu Anyone who has sat in deep meditation, trekked up a mountain peak, spent time immersed in play with an infant, fallen in love, or experienced the stillness of prayer has experienced time that felt limitless. The more conditioned we become, the more we develop […]
Meditation and Modern Life: A Zen Meditation Retreat
With Dan Zigmond
When was the last time you gave something your undivided attention? Nearly 2,500 years ago, Buddha worried we had become too distracted — and that was before paper, let alone smartphones. Today our days are filled with convenient distractions that promise happiness while mostly delivering busyness and frustration. Many of us live life in a […]
Graceful Exit: Preparing for a Good Death
With Andrew Holecek
We all face death, but how many of us are actually ready for it? Whether our own demise or that of a loved one comes first, how prepared are we? This workshop offers a wide array of resources and teachings to help participants address that final unfinished business and make the most out of every […]
Cancelled | Follow Your Tao: Embodying the Five Spirits Through Qigong and the Elements
With Stephanie Nosco
This weeklong immersion explores the Five Spirits of Chinese medicine — Shen, Hun, Yi, Po, and Zhi — as a living map of body, emotion, and destiny. Through qigong, meditation, meridian stretching, healing sounds, and reflection, participants are invited to follow the current of their own Tao — the natural unfolding of life within and […]
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! The Buddha’s teachings meet modern brain science in this interactive workshop exploring meditation, musical performances, and neuroplasticity. Join us to discover how these practices can harmonize with one another to offer paths for inner peace and more joyful engagement with the world. Leading deep inquiry and guided meditations, senior teacher […]
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 […]
Vibrant Silence: Qigong, Breath and Meditation
With Jim Gallas
Our awareness of energy both expands and becomes more subtle as we deepen into relaxation. The ancient Chinese practice of Qigong, often translated as “cultivating Life Force”, is a system of movement that relaxes and energizes the body/mind. You will find this form “Wai Dan Gong” easy to learn and a powerful means of experiencing […]
Self-Compassion as a Lifeboat Home: Remembering the Heart of Who We Are
With Caverly Morgan
What if the love you’ve been searching for is already here — waiting to be remembered? In this retreat, you’ll explore self-compassion as a lifeboat home — a steady refuge when self-criticism, striving, or overwhelm take hold. Rather than trying to “fix” yourself, you’ll be invited to gently shift your relationship to experience, discovering the […]
Stages of Tranquility and Insight
With Dustin DiPerna
Asanga’s Nine Stages of Staying is one of the oldest and most comprehensive systems of concentration in the Buddhist tradition. Sometimes called the Elephant Path, this approach was originated by the great Buddhist master in 506 A.D., and it is now the main method of training the mind in the Tibetan tradition. In this weekend […]
Crafting the Sacred Trilogy of Native American Instruments: Flute, Drum, and Rattle
With Guillermo Martinez
Join master craftsman and musician Guillermo Martinez for an unforgettable journey into the sacred traditions of Native American instrument making and music. This immersive, hands-on workshop invites you to reconnect with the spirit of sound by crafting three profound instruments: a Native American bamboo flute, a 16" elk-hide medicine drum, and a gourd crystal rattle. […]
While the Veil Is Thin: Autumn Ritual With Land, Ancestry, and Spirit
With Fletcher Tucker and Micha Merrick
For thousands of years, autumnal holidays such as Samhain, Hallowe’en, and Vetrnætr have served as ceremonial foundations — connecting pre-modern peoples to landscape, ancestors, and ritual time. Many cultures believe “the veil thins” during this time, letting enchantment flood back into our world. The time is rife with opportunities to renew sacred relationships with the […]
Sleep, Dream, Death, and Liberation: Exploring the Continuity of Awareness
With Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
In this five-day workshop, we will explore how sleep, dreams, and even the process of death can become gateways to deeper awareness and freedom. We’ll draw from the Tibetan contemplative traditions of dream and sleep practice to reveal how awareness continues through all states of experience. The retreat combines traditional teachings with insights from Western […]
When Spirit Speaks: Personal Evolution Through Spirit Connection
With Aja Daashuur
Your Spirit Guides are speaking to you. Join the conversation. This weeklong retreat is devoted to deepening your relationship with your spiritual team as a direct and reliable source of guidance, clarity, and transformation. This work centers on real-time dialogue. You bring what is present in your life, and your Guides respond. The exchange reveals […]
Breath: The Master Key
With Hawah Kasat
Breathing is one of the few functions in the human body that is both automatic and voluntary — happening unconsciously every moment of our lives, yet also available to conscious control. In the yogic traditions, this makes the breath profoundly significant: a bridge between body and mind, conscious and subconscious awareness, the autonomic and non-autonomic […]
Moving Men: An Embodied Inquiry
With Douglas Drummond
In a time when many men are questioning the inherited roles, social pressures, and stories that have shaped what it means to be a man, this workshop is an invitation to courageously explore masculinity. Through movement, honest self-reflection, and the profound learning that becomes possible when men gather, we’ll uncover challenges, witness one another’s vulnerability, […]
Primordial Qigong: Vibrant Health, Harmony with the Tao
With Kenneth Cohen
Primordial Qigong is meditation in motion and includes the two most famous forms of Taoist Meditation: the Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Energy Circulation, in which the solar (yang) and lunar (yin) energies flow in harmony, an essential key to vitality and longevity. You will also be given the tools on how to recharge the three dan […]
The Essential Qigong of China: The Energy, the Movement, and the Stories
With Chungliang Al Huang
Master Chungliang “Uncle Al” Huang, one of Esalen’s most cherished faculty members, brings 50+ years of teaching experience to welcome you into China’s ancient practice of qigong. During this workshop, Master Huang will teach the most essential qigong exercises — guiding students through energetic practices of movement, storytelling, and subtle energy work. This is an […]
The Stories Behind the Poses: Mythology in Motion
With Raj Balkaran
Every yoga posture embodies a story. Every story embodies a posture. The warrior's focused intention, the divine monkey's formidable leap, the lotus's sacred stillness — these are not mere ideas but encapsulations of physical practice. Encoded in each āsana is a mythic psychology: a map of consciousness, a demand on the practitioner, a doorway into […]
Creative Tai Ji Experience: Change, Transformation, Metamorphosis
With Chungliang Al Huang
To be truly creative, to let go of preconceived restrictions, is to allow yourself the freedom to flow. Taoist wisdom calls this Wu Wei — the art of not interfering with what is already happening. During this weeklong workshop, we will playfully reinvent Tai Ji forms with ancient Tai Ji rituals, Five Moving Forces of […]
Awaken Your Extraordinary Potential with Integral Transformative Practice® (ITP)
With Pam Kramer and Max Gaenslen
Practice is a seedbed of miracles. —Esalen Institute Co-Founder Michael Murphy What positive shift would create the most meaningful change in your life right now? Your extraordinary potential is built into your DNA and awaits your discovery. In this enlivening workshop, experience the essence of Integral Transformative Practice® (ITP), a living platform for growth, well-being, […]
Healing Wisdom for Modern Times: You Are Your Greatest Healer
With Erika Gagnon
Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey, as we gather together and explore traditional healing wisdom and the importance of ancestral lineage, ceremonies and rituals, sacred altars, medicinal plants, and the origins of dis-ease in our physical, mental/emotional, spiritual and soul bodies. You are your greatest healer and greatest medicine, […]
Spiritual Yearning
With Tanya Luhrmann and Nancy Lunney-Wheeler
How can those of us who yearn without belief or ritual find our way? Many of us have lost our connection to a mainstream faith, or maybe never had it. We long to find more, even if we are afraid that it may not be there. Some of us have experienced our worlds cracked open […]