Esalen Institute is open! However, Highway 1 to the south is closed — please review the alternate route directions.
Falling on the heels of the hibernal solstice, Go Within is an invitation to turn inward — an opportunity to go deeper within ourselves in order to create new and to enhance existing practices that enliven creativity and curiosity burning within.
Traditional yogic wisdom speaks of pratyahara, which is best understood as "going to the source of the senses." We are embracing the idea that cocooning toward generative ends leads to better connection and relationships, heightened synergies to cultivate our creative impulses, and nurturance of the self and of others. Winter solstice celebrations are steeped in meaningful symbolic dualities: fire and light, life and death, the rising and setting sun and moon.
Go Within is a winter festival for all who seek the light that inspirationally pours through the darkness. Like our brother and sister wild animals, when we are drawn into the earth, into our bodies, we can welcome sleep to search and discover the cavernous parts within us. Through the embrace of the arts and our own creativity, we unleash the pulsating, reverberating inner curiosity that fuels imagination and sparks innovation.
To create and turn things outward, we must first look inward to explore with a greater heightened sense the depths of what our hidden potentials hold. Winter is our mysterious season — she can be kind and soft. Rather than fear and avoid her, let’s celebrate her (and our own) complexity. To find and uncover our light, let’s together and individually embrace the dark, far reaches and prepare to launch into a new year ever more illuminated.
Expect an artful juxtapositioning of nurture-inward and blossom-outward programming including embodiment and presencing practices, personal reflection, community-building, land-based inquiry, intuitive art making, and play, as well as deeply restful contemplative experiences, like an exploration of dreamwork and dream medicine, wildcrafting and art making for actionable inspiration, transformative breathwork, and meditation. For all we nurture within and inwardly, we then need the space for release; to that end, you’ll enjoy nightly howls up into the big open starry sky, fireside music jams, site-specific sonic journeys, and dance parties designed to ignite the mind, body, and soul.
Savor three hearty, healthy meals per day. Our kitchen draws on global culinary traditions, using the fruits of the Esalen Farm & Garden and other local Big Sur providers to create delicious meals that support holistic health — for you and for the earth.
Esalen’s beloved mineral hot springs perch dramatically over the Pacific Ocean, a juxtaposition of intimate and infinite. A core part of Esalen from its inception, the baths and tubs are an ideal place to reflect, find clarity, and set new intentions.
Taking inspiration from our wildly popular Summer Groove programming, that featured Sanga of the Valley, Go Within will feature Esalen’s own signature faculty in collaboration with piano, zither, and mbira musician, Laraaji in December Snow Raven (Suor) who will all provide unique experiences that complement the season.
Laraaji is a visionary musician, composer, and mystic. Having emerged as a pioneering figure in ambient and new age music after a chance encounter with producer Brian Eno in the 70s, his music transcends conventional boundaries, seamlessly merging ambient textures with cosmic vibrations, creating an immersive and deeply introspective sonic journey.
Laraaji joins us for Go Within in December.
Taking inspiration from our wildly popular Summer Groove programming, that featured Sanga of the Valley, Go Within will feature Esalen’s own signature faculty in collaboration with piano, zither, and mbira musician, Laraaji in December Snow Raven (Suor) who will all provide unique experiences that complement the season.
Laraaji is a visionary musician, composer, and mystic. Having emerged as a pioneering figure in ambient and new age music after a chance encounter with producer Brian Eno in the 70s, his music transcends conventional boundaries, seamlessly merging ambient textures with cosmic vibrations, creating an immersive and deeply introspective sonic journey.
Taking inspiration from our wildly popular Summer Groove programming, that featured Sanga of the Valley, Go Within will feature Esalen’s own signature faculty in collaboration with piano, zither, and mbira musician, Laraaji in December Snow Raven (Suor) who will all provide unique experiences that complement the season.
Born in the Republic of Sakha in Arctic Siberia, Snow Raven was three years old when she started to learn the language of birds and animals. An initiate in the shamanic lore of her homeland, she fuses the traditional Sakha sound with electronic expression, her voice and presence true instruments of healing and wonder.
Micha Merrick
(
Ongoing
)
Meditate with the surging energy of the waves and let tension dissolve on the ocean breeze. Adorned with flowers and local healing herbs, this unique experience at the Esalen baths blends personal inquiry, herbal education, and sensory delight. Each ritual is an emergent collaboration of sound, sensation, intention, and floral offering to the sea. Come early, class size is very limited.
Sadia Bruce
(
Ongoing
)
A spacious, slow-paced exploration of the body home using therapeutic yoga and other somatic modalities to make space for breath, alleviate tension, and access greater mobility and fluidity— in flesh and bones, and in life. Accessible to all levels.
Sadia Bruce
(
Ongoing
)
Rhythmic breathwork for breath-body intimacy and heightened aliveness. Learn to shape, adapt and dance with your breath through joyful experimentation, using the medicine of rhythm as your anchor.
Staff
(
Ongoing
)
So, you’ve finally arrived at Esalen — welcome home! Join us in exploring Esalen’s historic, culture-shifting origins, the vision for human potential, and our core values, as we embark on another 60 years of transformational education. Prepare to learn, grow, experiment, and evolve as we shepherd you on how best to integrate into this unique community and get the most out of your time on this sacred, ancient land.
JJ Jeffries
(
Ongoing
)
Gestalt, like meditation, is an awareness practice that also provides a means for us to connect in the present moment. In this class, we will re-create and experience an Esalen style check-in, building spontaneous and intentional community. An Esalen tradition.
Megan Cassamas
(
Ongoing
)
MojaFlow is an experience to provoke and elevate you to discover new realms of energy and inspire you to experience the joy of going beyond barriers in your own practice and life. Class will include a somatic warm-up, breath-work, and strengthening exercises to support the body/mind connection.
JJ Jeffries
(
Ongoing
)
Start your morning by awakening your energetic body, tracking each of the chakras through the experience of meditative guitar and resonant voice. Then, emerge fully into sunrise energy with Dance Awake, connecting to your YES! and inviting ecstatic play and heart opening!
Jovinna Chan
(
Ongoing
)
In class we contemplate spiritual/philosophical teachings, slow down and move mindfully by co-ordinating breath with movement, sustain poses to deepen focus and awareness, practice breathing exercises and meditation to hone skillfulness in listening to the inner subtle experiences.
Jovinna Chan
(
Ongoing
)
This is a conscious dance practice for people who love or are curious about movement. Here in the company of non-dancers and dancers, we get supple and strong, we explore expressions, we celebrate creativity, we expand empathy, we move and are moved.
Sadia Bruce
(
Ongoing
)
Take a somatic dive into the depths of the self with an enlivening, vigorous moving meditation that borrows from a variety of modalities, incorporates ancestral movement, and culminates in seated stillness. Shake, sound, and dance your way to deepened connection with your miraculous body, and with the body of the world.
Please note: On Wednesday September 20, online registration may be unavailable for up to 15 minutes while system maintenance is performed. If the 'Register Now' page does not load, please wait about 15 minutes and try again.
Esalen Institute
55000 Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
US: 1-831-667-3000
info@esalen.org
