Spiritual & Wisdom Traditions

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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, […]

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 […]

Dance is one of the world’s most ancient transformative rituals. From the whirling dervishes to the shamans, the waltz to the rave, we dance for joy, healing, and connection — guided by wisdom that transcends the thinking brain. As the old year ends and the new begins, come to sweat, honor the past, and make […]

The simplest pattern is the clearest. Content with an ordinary life, you can show all people the way back to their own true nature — Laozi (Lao Tzu), Tao Te Ching, verse 65 When we tend to and align with the cycles and seasons, we glimpse the divine. The period between the start of the […]

What if joy isn’t something you chase but something you relax into? Many of us spend our lives searching for happiness while carrying the very tension that keeps us from experiencing it. This workshop offers another possibility: that joy isn’t something we create but something we uncover — emerging naturally as the body softens, the […]

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 […]

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 […]

Midwinter invites us to slow down, listen deeply, and remember what truly nourishes us. Beneath the surface of apparent stillness, roots deepen. Seeds quietly prepare. Life is already organizing itself for spring. What if our own hearts follow this same rhythm? Join us for a restorative week of immersive sound journeys, contemplative practices, movement, creative […]

A journey to heal oneself and awaken deeply from within. Through meditation, yoga, and time in nature, we will tap into the stories our bodies have to tell and develop skills to nourish ourselves in 2027. This workshop focuses on the transition from one year to the next as an opportunity to purposefully cultivate a […]

Join Heidi Rose Robbins and her team for an enlivening exploration of your astrological chart. Through poetry, movement, writing, and group counsel, we’ll bring our astrological map to life — and in so doing, we will practice loving, act courageously, and fully embrace our next life steps.  In this workshop, we will come together in […]

What lies behind today’s evidence-based mind-body practices for well-being, resilience, and purpose? This three-day workshop explores the deep lineages and sacred traditions from which many modern methods arise, guided by teachers who walk both worlds of rigorous science and timeless wisdom. At MD Anderson Cancer Center, Alejandro Chaoul pioneered programs to support patients with chronic […]

Life invites us into change, but rarely teaches us how to move through it well. Whether it’s a relationship ending, a role dissolving, a chapter closing, or a calling emerging, you may find yourself standing at the edge of what was — and unsure how to step into what comes next. This immersive weekend retreat […]

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," […]

You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. – Thich Nhat Hanh Join herbalist, medicine woman, and plant spirit teacher Marysia Miernowska […]

Freeing yourself from conditioned patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior takes more than stillness or intellectual inquiry. Real and lasting change requires rewiring the brain — but we can't change until we feel safe to do so. This is why learning to enter states of coherence elevates our capacity to build new patterns in their […]

We sleep one-third of our lifetime, an average of 20 to 25 years. Dream yoga is a practice that spans every moment, waking and sleeping. It is a powerful tool of awakening used for hundreds of years by the great masters of the Tibetan traditions. Foundational practices in dream yoga change the practitioner’s relationship to […]

Know from the rivers in clefts and in crevices: those in small channels flow noisily, the great flow silent. Whatever’s not full makes noise. Whatever is full is quiet. — Buddha We treasure this life, and yet we rarely can hear ourselves think. We are constantly being bombarded and absorbing information at a dizzying pace. […]

Join master craftsman and musician Guillermo Martinez for a hands-on journey into the art of Native American flute making. Working with cedar wood and the patient rhythms of handcraft, you’ll create a Native American-style flute of your own — shaped, tuned, finished, and ready to play. Throughout the workshop, you’ll be guided step by step […]

You are never truly alone — loving guidance has always been by your side. Your spirit guides, part of your soul family and spiritual GPS, are waiting to assist, support, play, and dance with you. In this five-day immersion, you’ll explore how to access their wisdom with patience, trust, and an open heart, and discover […]

What if sleep could be more than just crashing into your pillow at the end of a long day? What if it could be a portal to transformation and self-discovery? In this workshop, we’ll dive into the ancient Daoist art of sleep alchemy, where the Wudang Hibernating Dragon and Five Dragons Sleeping methods teach you […]

Join ceremonial leader and wisdom carrier Erika Gagnon on a sacred journey to look beyond the false duality of a divided self and the destructive concepts of “self versus other” and “self versus nature” to rediscover how to live in harmony within ourselves and with the world around us. We live on a constant spectrum […]

In this light-polluted and highly distracted age, it’s more important than ever to find a way to stay centered and balanced. Dark retreat offers that way. An ancient spiritual and shamanic practice, dark retreat traditionally entails spending time — from hours to weeks — in a totally dark cabin or cave. It has been practiced […]