A weekend with Michael Murphy and Jeff Kripalu
A few impressions from this workshop, skipping many topics, no accuracy guaranteed and I haven’t read Kripalu’s book yet…but some history, some more understanding about Esalen and its people.
Michael Murphy invited Dick Price to go down to Esalen with him in th early 60's. The place, owned by Michael’s family had different people living there, from evangelists to weekend gay community. Things were not super great between these groups, and Michael’s grandma gave them the authority to take over.
In the early years, it was mostly intellectuals like Maslow and other prominent scholars that came by and started teaching. Around 1967 came the experimental period, a time where things were taken to extremes, from drugs to sexuality. Workshops where people experimented if they can pee in their pans, or a group of men playing nude volleyball are just two examples.
The Beatles came by with their Indian Guru and played music on the front lawn, Henry Miller came by every weekend…
Different teachers and leaders were invited, but if their teachings seemed over the top, Esalen did not invite them back. There was great openness to everything, but also a responsible mind to monitor things.
Both Michael Murphy and Dick Price (the two founders of Esalen) were anti cults. Price was also seeing the Guru problem in his eyes. Watching out for the Mystics that are power driven.
If it were not for those liberal times that followed the tense times of the 50’s Esalen could not have developed to where it is today. It is a process of experimenting and learning, where different modalities are tried. This also includes most of the best professors that America has had to offer.
Fritz Pearls was a big part of Esalen. He started his Gestalt work here and taught for some years.
Fritz was also the one who brought Ida Rolf to Esalen, where she would develop Rolfing, a unique tissue work practiced worldwide.
About the people that come to Esalen (from the home page of the Esalen website)
“They come for the intellectual freedom to consider systems of thought and feeling that lie beyond the current constraints of mainstream academia. They come to discover ancient wisdom in the motion of the body, poetry in the pulsing of the blood. They come to rediscover the miracle of self-aware consciousness. At best, they come away inspired by the precision of a desire to learn and keep on learning through all of life, and beyond.”
“I was very influenced by Sri Aurobindo. I was meditating 8 hours a day” Michael was telling us.
In Sri Aurobindo's view, Man, at present, lives mostly in his surface mind, life and body. “There is an inner being within which pushes him to a constant pursuit of a greater beauty, harmony, power and knowledge. He has to awake to the greater possibilities of this inner being and purify and orientate by its drive towards the Truth the rest of the nature. There can follow afterwards an opening upward to the several ranges of consciousness between the ordinary human mind and the Supramental Truth-Consciousness and their power brought down into the mind life and body. This will enable the full power of the Truth-Consciousness to work in the nature.” http://www.infobuddhism.com/infobuddhism/institute%20for%20wholistic%20education/design/teaching.htm
Esalen is concerned with the spirit, but very much observes the body in its functioning. The Esalen massage is a huge attraction these days. Somatic work has developed here, and now very much a big part of Esalen.
Holistic health was first coined here at Esalen and then brought to legislation.
Human Potential is the main focus of Esalen. A very broad concept allowing for a great deal of teachings in many diverse individual ways. An emphasis is made on both social and personal transformation. (Esalen was very much a part of Yeltzin’s first visit to the US which had a great deal with Russia’s social and political change)
The techniques to actualize the human potential exist in everyone equally, and Esalen has always been an open place to host all races and genders.
It’s important to be in the present and take baby steps, yet we need to see the big picture. Have the grand idea in mind, Murphy kept telling us.
This workshop was fantastic both because of its leaders as well as the people attending’ professors, MD’s, health care people, owner of organic carrots business…and myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment