A Week in Esalen

Esalen is a nice spot, but I don't know if it's for me. Esalen is this strange retreat area in Big Sur that is home to some famous hot springs visited by the likes of Ram Dass, Richard Feynman, and Alan Watts amongst many other people who had quite an influential impact on our culture. Hell, even Hunter S Thompson was a gate guard there a long time ago. 

The hot springs were probably the best part of the whole experience, they kind of smell like a boiled egg but they are continuously warm, though like I said there were mostly some strange boomers there and older people there. It seems like Esalen has changed a lot since its glory days in the 60s and 70s. A lot more pricy, but still a pleasant relaxing experience overall. Definitely a good place to relax and recharge and heal.

I met someone from Mount Shasta there with rainbow hair and we talked a bit about the culture there, there was some Mandala class happening there that was kind of nice I wish I'd gone to. I'd just ended up at this once class called "Luminous Darkness" which centered more around Zen Buddhist philosophy and its applications to modern life. 

I was kind of bored for a little bit there and honestly I could have done some things differently. It was certainly an experience to be in a space whom many people I'd listened to over the years stayed at but it seems like its not having the same societal relevance it used to have and is kind of existing off its powerful legacy rather than being a place for new ideas to emerge and counterculture to blossom. 

While I was there the first night sitting in one of the hot-springs late at night staring up at the milky way with the waves of the ocean crashing down below, completely naked, someone got in the hot tub with me. and then another person. I happened to be there around the same time as a conference being done there on the "subtle body" with people from all over the place mainly America to discuss the topic.Soon the conversation in the hotspring was buzzing with the topic.

It seemed a bit like standard hippy bullshit but I was willing to listen to them a bit, I kind of wish I'd delved deep into how it could work but I didn't want to get into arguments with them I was just there to relax and chill for a little bit. 

I tried to talk to them about how the subtle body might relate to the experience of transgender individuals but they didn't seem really wanting to talk about the topic which was odd. I guess because it's such a politically and societal contentious topic at the moment (it really shouldn't be) but who knows. It could have been an interesting dialogue had it been free to have been expressed.

I mostly just talked a bit about astronomy and astrophysics under the beautiful night sky of Esalen. It's a strange place, a nice place, I wish more places like it existed but I do also wish they didn't cost as much for people to participate and be active in. 

Maybe conditions will change, but for now it seems to mostly be a get away space for boomers.