Kripal, Jeffrey J. (2007). Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion. University of Chicago Press. xiv + 573 pages. Includes bibliography and index. Cloth and paper.
I always like to see a topic that interests me embedded in a larger context. A wider context describes how the topic of my interest (psychedelics in this case) fits into historical events and into a more global collection of ideas (the human potential movement, in Esalen). By following the movement of ideas and people through Esalen Institute, Kripal constructs an intellectual and personal history of the Esalen as one spring whose waters both nourished and reflected the 60's, but more than that, of the 70s, 80s, 90's and 21st Century too.
He readily alerts readers that his story must omit some items that others would deem important, and that his organizing ideas track his attention to selected Esalen events. His four organizing idea-themes are: the religion of no religion (alternately, the religion of all religions), altered states of history, the tantric transmission, and the enlightenment of the body. "Esalen," as he describes it, "has dedicated itself to the fusing or synthesizing of the spiritual and scientific, of wonder and reason, of what an academic might call the humanities and the sciences." (page 13). He recognizes these significant aspects of Esalen, rather than the misleading garden of delights for hippies and upper middle class hangers-on that the popular press dwells on.
By tracking Esalen people as a history, Kripal gives not only a history of the place, but also a history of the human potential movement. Esalen combines both an adventurous think tank and a location for experiments in human interactions, where mind and body were not separated, but used to enhance each other. The leading character of the book is Michael Murphy, one of Esalen's founders and the only person appearing consistently throughout the book. While I expected Kripal's chapter-long discussions of Murphy's books to be dully laudatory, if not outright boring, I found his discussion of them an intriguing way to see Murphy's thinking and Esalen's activities as harmonious.
Readers on this list will be especially interested in two chapters on psychedelics' early days at Esalen and the chapter on Stan and Christina Grof, both for the psychedelic points and for displaying how psychedelics form part of the tantric transmission and enlightenment of the body. In the earlier chapter, Huxley, Watts, Leary, and Native American use of psychedelics appear as parts of a larger textile that wove together threads from Eastern religions, physical development routines, discoveries about the human body and brain, unusual abilities, and innovative forms of psychotherapy and growth techniques.
In the chapter that focuses on the Grofs, we see how their interests grew beyond psychedelics to include Eastern religions and developing ways to help people through spiritual crises. Kripal makes the surprising insight that Freud's idea of the unconscious as a cesspool of fear, lust, and destruction was, in fact, useful to the human potential movement because its main assumption is that we are not aware of much of our minds. But there is more to our unconscious than what Freud saw, so his work is primarily important not for what he specifically found about our minds, but because he set Western psychology looking for more, and some of what we've discovered forms part of the neglected human potential.
Besides psychedelics, other mindbody threads woven into the Esalen tapestry include aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Western religions; meditation, dreamwork, hypnosis, and additional altered-states psychotechnologies; aikido, breathing routines, Rolfing, massage, the martial arts, and other body-based growth; mythology, Jungian, humanistic psychology, transpersonal psychology, psychic phenomena, and additional intellectual approaches; Gestalt, encounter, family therapy, and group processes; influences on education, medicine, and even international relations -- the list goes on. Like a venture capital group that discovers, researches, and develops ideas for companies, Esalen explores and tries out ideas and practices for human growth. All of these --like Murphy's books Jacob Atabet and The Future of the Body--are examined as clues for the possible next stages of human evolution.
While most books to me would be twice as good if they were half as long, I was relieved to find Esalen's 468 pages of primary text a good read. I kept on reading "just one more section". Part of this goes to Kripal's ability to express ideas -- often flavored with his own perspective on his ideas -- entertaining and insightful. The chapter notes and list of resources confirm the depth of his research and are rich leads for others to follow.
After distracting, inaccurate, and exaggerated reports in the popular media during the 60s and subsequently, Kripal's Esalen counteracts press sensationalism. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise: shallow news reporters found shallowness at Esalen; deeper thinkers find deeper ideas and ideals. As a professor of religious studies at Rice University, Kripal sees Esalen as "one of America's most sophisticated mystical expressions." (page 24). That is, Esalen documents the spiritual quest for the fullest human fulfillment, and Kripal points out it is a combined mind-plus-body task.
Psychedelicists, who share a sense of unity and oneness, will see Esalen as fostering these directions, as mentioned above "dedicated itself to the fusing or synthesizing of the spiritual and scientific, of wonder and reason, of what an academic might call the humanities and the sciences." (page 13). Esalen, the book, does good service of setting the record straight about Esalen, the Institute.
