The Terrifying Delight of Self-Surpassing
Life is a Festival #44: Michael Murphy (Esalen Institute)
Photos by Jake Stangel
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Somewhere along the California coast, between breathtaking cliffs, mineral-rich springs, and ancient forests, Michael Murphy and his friend Richard Price created the Esalen Institute in 1962. This retreat center and intentional community was a magnet for luminaries like Alan Watts, Stanislav Grof, Ida Rolf, and Joseph Campbell who all became long-term resident scholars.
Today on the show, I speak to the mighty Mike Murphy about the magic of Esalen and his menagerie of friends who’ve since become legends. We talk about brokering Boris Yeltsin’s trip to the US, psychedelics vs meditation, Alan Watts’ drinking problem, and how Esalen was vaccinated against cults despite hosting a few cult leaders (ahem Timothy Leary).
The through-line of our conversation is the idea of evolutionary panentheism, a philosophy of an indwelling spirit made manifest through evolution. This perspective made Esalen the seat of the Human Potential movement and guides the continuing development of the center today.
There is a Sanskrit word Lila which refers to a terrifying kind of play. This is the game of life and we are it’s divine protagonists.
“The purpose of creation, is lila,” said Michael’s guru Sri Aurobindo, “Lila is a purpose-less purpose, a natural outflow, a spontaneous self-manifestation of the Divine. The concept of lila, again, emphasizes the role of delight in creation.”
So… you know, Life is a Festival.
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TIMESTAMPS
:05 - Evolutionary Panentheism: The development of the cosmos, natural selection, and human civilization where evolution becomes conscious of itself in us.
:11 - The founding of Esalen Institute
:15 - How Esalen brokered Boris Yeltsin’s trip to the states and why America itself was his acid.
:23 - Allan Watts as the Oscar Wilde of his time and his struggle with alcoholism.
:28 - Hunter S Thompson was the groundskeeper
:31 - “No one captures the flag,” how Esalen is vaccinated against cults.
:35 - Timothy Leary and how the hippie world had a genius for glamorizing ineptitudes
:39 - Aldous Huxley and the perennial philosophy
:42 - Meditation, psychedelics and Stanislav Grof
:46 - How’d the podcast go?
Graphics Designed by Andy McErlean
Theme song ““Peculiar Colors” [Manjumasi]“ by dj atish