Some ‘Center’ Resources:

•Esalen Institute & Center for Theory & Research

•Tribal Ground Circle

•Gnosis Retreat Center Inspired by the legacy of R.D. Laing

•Omega Institute

•Tassajara Zen Center

BOOKS:

•Heider, John  The Tao of Leadership and The Tao of Daily Living

Two of my most favorite books!  And that is sincerely aside from John having been both my teacher, my beloved friend, and partner for a number of years. (Jimmy Buffett counted The Tao of Leadership as one of his 10 favs in his ‘A Pirate Looks at 50” autobiography. Shows there’s more to Jimmy B than margaritas!)

•Callahan, John  Books on Gestalt Practice, Dick Price, etc.

John has put together various books, including: Manual of Gestalt Practice; The Life and Practice of Richard Price; Relational Gestalt Practice; Gestalt Awareness Practice; and Dick Price and his Shamanic Practice with Psychosis (among others)

•Gibran, Kahil  The Prophet and many others

I first heard of Gibran via a Dan Fogelberg album cover in the late 70’s.  Read all I could find many moons ago.  Brilliant.

•Merton, Thomas  New Seeds of Contemplation; No Man Is An Island; The Way of Chuang Tzu; Thoughts in Solitude; and more

Excerpt from New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton

Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints:  they never succeed in being themselves.   They never get around to being the particular poet or the particular monk they are intended to be by God.  They never become the man or the artist who is called for by all the circumstances of their individual lives.  

They waste their years in vain efforts to be some other poet, some other saint...

They wear out their minds and bodies in a hopeless endeavor to have somebody else's experience or write somebody else's poems or possess somebody else's spirituality.

There can be an intense egoism in following everybody else. People are in a hurry to magnify themselves...hurry ruins saints as well as artists.  They want quick success and they are in such haste to get it that they cannot take time to be true to themselves...humility consists in being precisely the person you actually are before God...

You must have the humility to work out your own salvation in a darkness where you are absollutely alone.

Thomas Merton

•H.W.L. Poonja (PapaJi)  ‘The Truth Is’ and more

Read more re: PapaJi in the ‘Other Sites’ section.

•Harris, Rachel   Link to books by Rachel

Rachel’s latest book is Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety. I’ve known Rachel for over 30 years.  She was at Esalen in those early days of ‘The Flying Circus‘ and has continued to teach there over the years. I highly recommend her books and work.

Will eventually put more books here.......

•Kripal, Jeffrey   Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion

And more about Jeff’s work is found here:  Jeff Kripal’s Work

ARTICLES:

      

•The Spiritual Dimensions of Gestalt Therapy by Ruth Wolfert

•Published Letter in NYT Book Review Section by Dorothy N Thomas

in response to THIS book review of Jeffrey Kripal’s book Esalen: America                       and the Religion of No Religion

OTHER SITES:

•Dan Fogelberg Website

Dan Fogelberg passed on to other adventures on 12/16/07 at age 56, of prostate cancer (get checked! Early detection is totally curable.) Dan’s music was a powerful catalyst of growth for thousands of people over the years.  He was a brilliant musician and an amazing, authentic songwriter.  No other human being influenced my life as deeply as Dan Fogelberg’s soul did, through his music.  It was the catalyst to my first spontaneous kundalini awakening in 1978 and continues to inspire me to this day.  My life was dramatically transformed from that of a ‘society defined’ southern belle to the authentic life i lead today.  His music somehow brought me to myself, to God, and to others.  I am forever grateful. 

•HWL Poonja (PapaJi)

Never having been a ‘guru’ person, I was quite shocked when my intuitive guidance directed me to go meet this man in India.  Yet to this day, he is the person I have felt most ‘met’ by, in a spiritual sense.  I laughingly said to him “If the same part of me that told me to get on a plane and come see you told me to fall at your feet and do whatever you said I would, but it hasn’t, so I won’t”  and PapaJi just laughed very hard and said “People who follow other people are merely sheep!  It takes a true Lion to follow your OWN path!!!  But if the sheep want to come?  Let them come!” as he continued laughing.  I am grateful for the time, energy, and letters we shared.

•Steven Harper  Workshops • Art • Facilitation

Nature guide, facilitator, artist extraordinaire and ...

•Christine Stewart Price & Dorothy Charles

Amazing Gestalt facilitators.  Check out their individual websites by clicking on their names

•Janna Fournier

Visit Janna’s website to see her incredible work.

•Daniel & Cynthia Bianchetta’s Art Both, great artists in their own right.  Click on their names to see visit their websites. 

•Supernature: Esalen and the Human Potential

This incredible documentary film, from Writer/Producer/Director/Editor Scott Hulon Jones, and Writer/Producer Jeffrey Kirpal, is “about the influential Esalen Institute and the Human Potential Movement it spawned.” 

•University of West Georgia Psychology Dept

I’m an alumni of this program (1978-80). Powerful and transformative, as well as educational.  Exceptional faculty (I recently attended/presented at a conference there.)  The first couple of paragraphs about their MA and PsyD program reads:

“The West Georgia Psychology Department maintains a unique emphasis in humanistic and transpersonal psychology.  The whole person is our concern.  Literature, history, art, sociology, anthropology, religious studies, neuroscience, and philosophies of the East and West inform and enrich our program.

From a psychological perspective, we address the "big questions": Who am I?  Who are we?  Why are we here?  Where are we going?  What is worth living for?  What contribution can I make?  First and foremost, our department promotes understanding of oneself and others.  We see this understanding as the basis for personal growth and development, insight into psychology itself, and preparation for professional life.”