Originally posted on sciy.org by Rich Carlson on Thu 09 Aug 2007 01:39 PM PDT
![[jacket image]](https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Images/Chicago/9780226453699.jpeg)
Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion
588 p., 32 halftones, 1 color plate. 6 x 9 2007
Cloth $30.00 ISBN: 978-0-226-45369-9 (ISBN-10: 0-226-45369-3) Spring 2007
Esalen has always been on the edge. Famous for its natural hot
springs and stunning locale on the face of the Pacific coastline, the
institute has long been a world leader in alternative and experiential
education. Such luminaries as Henry Miller, Joseph Campbell, Aldous
Huxley, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Hunter S. Thompson, and others
have gathered there to develop their revolutionary ideas,
transformative spiritual practices, and innovative art forms.
Jeffrey Kripal here recounts the spectacular history of Esalen and its
birth in the American counterculture. Forged in the literary and
mythical leanings of the Beat Generation, inspired in the lecture halls
of Stanford by radical scholars of comparative religion, the institute
was the remarkable brainchild of Michael Murphy and Richard Price. Set
against the heady backdrop of California during the revolutionary
1960s, Esalen recounts in fascinating detail how these two
maverick thinkers sought to fuse the spiritual revelations of the East
with the scientific revolutions of the West, or to combine the very
best elements of Zen Buddhism, Western alchemy, and Indian
yoga—particularly in its Tantric forms—into a decidedly utopian vision
that rejected the dogmas of conventional religion. In their religion of
no religion, the natural world was just as crucial as the spiritual
one, science and faith not only commingled but became staunch allies,
and the enlightenment of the body—through self-enhancement and, yes,
free love—could lead to the full realization of our development as
human beings.
Darwin, Tantric sex, cold war physics, psychedelic
drugs, golf, and, of course, religion all come into play in a book that
can only be described as monumental. Esalen is a prehistory of
our nation’s current fascination with Eastern religions, our steadily
growing acceptance of the supernatural in everyday life—and a
surprising page-turner.
Subjects:
- HISTORY: American History
- PHILOSOPHY: Philosophy of Religion
- RELIGION: American Religions
- RELIGION: Comparative Studies and History of Religion
- RELIGION: Philosophy of Religion, Theology, and Ethics
- RELIGION: Religion and Society
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