Awe and Wonder: An Exploration Through Science, Contemplation, and Narrative

With Dacher Keltner and Mollie McNeil

September 29 - October 1, 2023

Workshop Schedule

Friday
5:00 pm – 5:45 pm *How to Drop Into Esalen*
7:15 pm – 9:30 pm
Saturday
10:00 am – 12:30 pm
4:15 pm – 6:15 pm
7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Sunday
10:00 am – 12:00 pm

See general schedule information including arrival, departure and meal times.

  • Sleeping Bag Space – $540.00
  • Bunk Bed Space – $720.00
  • Standard Shared Space – $900.00
  • Standard Queen Room – $1,200.00
  • Standard Room Two Beds – $1,920.00
  • Premium Queen Room – $1,680.00
  • Premium King Room – $1,800.00
  • Premium Plus King Room – $2,040.00
  • Premium Wooden Yurt – $2,040.00
  • Premium Wooden Yurt Two Beds – $2,040.00
  • Price House Suite – $2,760.00
  • Rolf Suite – $3,900.00
  • Point House – $3,900.00
  • Fritz Point House – $3,900.00
  • South Point House – $4,800.00

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 workshop, we will uncover the latest scientific understandings of awe. By engaging in evolutionary and neuroscientific approaches to the mind, and considering the narrative and cultural meanings of awe, we will begin to tease out where this feeling lives in our own minds and hearts, and learn how to cultivate it more deeply.

Together, we will discover a number of practices to cultivate this transcendent amalgam of reverence, astonishment, and admiration in our own lives and how to deepen one’s relationship to it. We’ll travel by way of reflective writing, using expressive writing principles and models from Contemplative Studies.

During our time together, we will:

  • Learn the latest science and scholarship on awe and wonder.
  • Engage in contemplative practices related to awe.
  • Learn about literary, poetic, and aesthetic approaches to awe.
  • Learn to cultivate an awe-related writing and reflective practice.
  • Cultivate an awareness of possibilities for awe in everyday life.

Join us for this incredible opportunity to refresh your heart and mind in the breathtaking natural setting of Esalen and Big Sur.

About the Leaders

Dacher Keltner

Dacher Keltner is a professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center. His research focuses on the biological and evolutionary origins of compassion, awe, love, beauty, and humility, as well as power, social class, and inequality. Dacher is the author of several hundred scientific articles and several books, […]

Learn more about Dacher Keltner

Mollie McNeil

Mollie McNeil has lectured in the English departments of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Mills College, and De Anza College. In her PhD work, she studied the history of women's writing. She is an award-winning teacher and has published many short stories. She currently teaches a variety of creative writing classes at the Modern Elder […]

Learn more about Mollie McNeil

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