Choosing Between Esalen and Other Practices Kinda Like It

By Brian Weaver

With the Esalen Institute seeming to be much more of just a retreat center than an actual religious commune, it is hard to draw parallels between it and other famous communes such as Jonestown or even Mother Ann Lee’s Shakers. However, what is notable about the Esalen Institute is the way that it has been a leader in the New Age and Counterculture movements since its conception.

One easy comparison to make is between Esalen and the practice of Transcendental Meditation. While both institutions claim that they are in no way a new type of religion, they have both attracted thousands of vocal followers. The popularity of these two practices stems from all over, be it celebrity involvement, social status, or the privilege of being wealthy enough to participate. Ultimately, the people that seek out these two institutions are looking to expand their minds in some way. Involvement in either the Esalen Institute or in Transcendental Meditation requires one to attend workshops, to learn skills, and then apply those skills to their every day life. Whether or not people identify with this as a religious practice doesn’t really matter, as it is still a lifestyle change that people implement in their lives.

While Esalen may not necessarily offer the Transcendental Meditation program, they do offer many meditation workshops. Meditation at Esalen may take different forms depending on who is offering workshops at the time, but the objective remains the same—to expand the mind and reach some sort of enlightenment.  

Of course, none of this is to say that Transcendental Meditation can offer everything that the Esalen Institute has. While both of them offer community and mind-opening meditation, there are several differences after that. While Transcendental Meditation can be practiced anywhere, Esalen is always located in Big Sur, California. With this location comes the beautiful California topography, and of course the hot springs that Esalen is so famous for. Esalen offers hundreds of workshops, not just on meditation, which provides opportunities for people to find what it is that helps THEM reach their full potential. While there are people that swear by meditation, it is not necessarily for everyone. By visiting Esalen, they have the opportunity to experiment and explore to find what it is that they connect with.


Ultimately, it seems a little unfair to compare these two institutions. Both of them have respectable practices all over the United States and beyond, and both have their own followings. However, there are similarities that can be drawn between the two. Beyond just the outrageous price points they ask, both Esalen and Transcendental Meditation are focused on expansion of the mind for the betterment of the human population. Although these seem like exclusive clubs, they are in fact open to all who have the privilege of being able to pay for them. Additionally, both of these practices claim that they are not in any way a new form of religion (but that’s a whole other blog post!). At the end of the day, choosing which institution to follow is a completely personal choice, which is why both have such great followings.

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 14, 2017 at 3:05 PM

    I found myself running into the same issue when I was trying to compare and contrast the Rajneesh movement to other new religious movements. I feel like when you spend so much time and effort researching something, as we did for the better part of a semester, it is hard to believe that anything is exactly like it. Sure there may be some similarities if you look for them, but it feels almost disrespectful to compare one movement to another, because they are each unique.

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