Clothes, Emotional Logjams Disappear (Oct. 11, 1978)
1
8/13/2019 Clothes, Emotional Logjams Disappear (Oct. 11, 1978) http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/clothes-emotional-logjams-disappear-oct-11-1978 1/1 48 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1978 Clothes, emotional logjams disappear By ART HARRIS Th e Washington Post BIG SUR, Calif. — Grad- uation ceremonies for Ber- nie Gunther's 5-day, 29 0 seminar, From Sex to Su- perconsciousness, have ad - journed to the baths. "Ooooooooooooooooh,'' sighs a dentist from Fort Lee, N.J., as he slithers into the hot communal tub. An L.A. special education teacher strokes the nape of his neck, fondles an ear lobe. A veil of steam, rises o ff the water, softening the expressions of delight on the eight faces sharing the bath. They look as sweet and contended as anyone Raphael ever painted. "I had people touching each others' naked bodies before anyone else in this business," boasts Gunther. "I've always been outland - ish." Five days ago, when the bathers arrived here'at t he Esalen Institute to loosen up emotional logjams, they were strangers to each other an d themselves. A nd now? Well, the clothes are off; everyone is becoming his own best friend. A full moon dances like a million diamonds over a dark blue, undulating Pacific, and the Cosmic Caterer has served up a banquet of stars. "California is wonder- ful " exclaims a bather. "We'd be outlaws back Hast," says another. "But they're 25 years behind.'. We'll try anything out here; we're living on the edge... Naran home recipe ptan takes off ugly fat. The Naran Plan c an help you lose pounds of unsightly fa t right in your own home. This home recipe weight-control plan is . easy to follow and costs little. Go o your drug store and ash for the Naran Reducing Plan. The whole plan is included in every package. T he directions ar e right on t he labe. Pour t he liquidInto a pint bottle and add enough grapefruit juice to fill th e bottle. Tahe two tablespoonsful twice a day as needed. Take t he vitamin supple- ment includedand follow the low calorie weekly food menu. Your first purchase should show you a simple easy wa y lo lose bulky fat and help regain slender more graceful curves; reducible pounds and inches of excess fa t ' should disappear from neck. chin. arms, hips, abdomen, calves and ankles. If you ar e not completely satisfied withyour lirst purchase just return the empty carton for your money hack . Follow this easy way endorsed by many w ho have triedthis plan to help bring back alluring curves and graceful slenderness. Note h ow quickly bloat disappears , how much better you feel. More alive, youthful appearing and active. AOVT George L eonard, 55, for- mer Look editor and a Bos- well of human potential, is flat on his belly, worming his way through the Tun- nel of Fear. Adventures like the Tun- nel of Fear are designed to pu t the class in touch with their inner essence. The tunnel is actually a human gauntlet of seekers who pound, pummel an d frus- trate the crawler as he at- tempts to belly through to the other end. The moral: that life just isn't fair. In 1961, Michael Murphy drove down to Big Sur with psychologist Dick Price to check out 375 acres owned by Murphy's late grandfa- ther, a'Salinas doctor who once dreamed of turning th e rugged, coastal para- "dise into a European-style spa.. ' Murphy talked h is grand- mother into giving Esalen a cheap, long-term lease (until 2017) — essentially so he could pursue his col- leage dalliance'with East- ern mysticism, psychology an d philosophy. When his grandmother died, the property went to Murphy an d assorted relatives — in trust. She refused to hand over the land without strings. "You'd just give it to some Hindu," she once Washington Post Photo Bernie Gunther, conductor of the five-day, $290 seminar From Sex to Superconsc iousness at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, Calif., says I've always been outlandish. The institute is no longer a way-out outpost. sniffed. "She wasn't far off," laughs M urphy, 47, a lean long distance runner who takes little active part in Esalen these days. To his nonprofit salon came western therapists fascinated with mining t he eastern disciplines, and various yoga practices were incorporated into tra- ditional repertoires of dig- ging out the emotions. It w as at Esalen that gestalt psychology first shook hands with Kundilini Yoga. Purveyors of various therapies were forever dueling over how best to peel the emotional onion- skin. Non-Freudian rivals experimented daily with some new technique, they frquently shot from the hip This person can sellyouyour new car, finance your newcar, or lease you a new car. All in one place. He's your nearby Chevrolet, P ontiac. Oldsmobile. Buick. Cadillac or CM C Truck dealer. When you're shopping for a new car. pay him a visit. Once you find the mode you want, mention the words. GMAC Financing . You'll beamazed at what happens next. Your CM dealer can arrange the car financing and.fmancing for the credit life and disability insurance right in his showroom. Monthly payments ca n bearranged. With theGMAC Plan, he can make it possible for you to get into your new CM ca r and drive it away. Or maybe you're interested in leasing a new car. Your GM dealer can arrange thai too. GMAC Financing takes the running around out of car buying. GMAC Financing saves you time and trouble. GMAC Financing. Another good reason to visit your General Motors dealer. GMAC FINANCING CHEVROLET/PONTIAC/OLDSMOBILE/BUICK/CADILLAC/GMC TRUCK — and often at each other. Fritz Perls, the beloved and feared godfather of gestalt, often accused Will Schutz, the Adam of en- counter groups, of spread- in g superficiality in the form of "instant joy." "He was just jealous of my gaining popularity," says Schutz. No single path to explor- in g the self was deemed The Way, although Esalen ha d its experiential bias. Behaviorists' view of man as a Mr. Stimulus-Re- sponse was discounted (too mechanical), as was Freud's obsession with human pathology. Psyches weren't sick, sick, sick, but just fine, thank you. Esalen's Big Daddies felt that so-called normal peo- pl e were capable of the ecstatic or "peak experi- ences" mystics have long described. Only the proper combination of ingredients w as needed to make things happen, and this usually consisted of estern-style meditation combined with physical exercise. The focus was on developing th e "Body-mind" — the mind, the body and the emotions, together. To harmonize the Body- mind, it was necessary to strip away repressions, an d a number of fledgling therapies evolved, not the least among them bioener- getics, a body technique that focuses on opening up the body's energy centers roughly corresponding to th e chakras of eastern tra- dition. "When you're dealing with blocked energy, al - most anything ca n hap- pen," says New Yorker Alan Schwartz, who com- bines gestalt with bioener- getics. "Some people would breathe three times and go right up the wall —stark, raving mad — or have an orgasm on the spot. Of course, Esalen's If-It- Feels-Good-Do-It atmo- sphere nudged things along. "If you give people a license to do things they have never done before, you're going to get a very powerful vibration," says Esalen president Julian Sil- verman. "It was an emo- tion-charged environ- ment." Nowadays, a visitor is as likely to encounter a gov- ernment bureau crat as the girl next door, a movie star as a group of French tour- ists in sex therapy. So b stories abound, as do .tales of renewal. Strangers ar e introduced to Esalen's favorite piece of evidence — anthropolo- gist Gregory Bateson, 74, a skeptic who came here to die. So far, he hasn't suc- ceeded. It is hardly what the learned old man expected when he arrived six months ago. Doctors had diagnosed lung cancer. Esalen was seeking a res- ident grandfather, and Ba- teson fit the bill. A former University of California re - gent famous for his "dou- ble-bind" theory of schizo- phrenia, author, philosopher-and ex-hus- WESTHOME FOODS 737 WELLINGTON AVE. PH. 774-3491 o r 2 CANADA GR. A 1 RED 1's 2's WELL AGED GUARANTEED TENDER FRE ITY WIDE DELIVERY BEEF TENDERLOIN (FILET MIGNON WILL GOURMET ON REQUEST 20 Portions 6 oz. size (approx.) TOP SIRLOIN NEW YORK STE KS 20 Portions 8 oz. size (approx.) 99 9 TURKEY SAUSAGES H M 9 TURKEY CUTLETS 4 oz. (approx.) TURKEY BURGER PATTIES 3 oz. {approx Ib. 9 SIRLOIN STEAKS FROZEN LOOSE WEINERS 10 lb. bx. SSORTED COLD ME TS Frozen 6 oz. pkgs. 3/n 00 CAN. NO. 1 LETTUCE t 39< TOM TO JUICE Can. Fancy Yellow Label 10 (I. oz. size 4/M 00 PRICES EFFECTIVE OCT. 11, 12, 13, 14 WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO LIMIT QUANTITIES band of Margret Mead, Ba- teson was invited to live in Fritz Perls' old residence with his wife, Lois, and their 10-year-old dughter to sample the nurturing en- vironment, the health food and the baths. He is a gentle hulk of a m an with a long beak nose, tw o missing front teeth, a twinkle of permanent be- musement and a penchant fo r wearing loafers without socks. The daily doses of affection he receives ar e staggering. Beautiful women a re forever shower- in g him with kisses, an d young men vie to sit at his feet. He doesn't quite know what to make of his sudden longevity. "I just don't feei particu- larly like dying these days, he grins. "They've been pumping me full of wheat grass juice." More typical of the peo- ple here is a fortyish woman named Barbara wh o says s he came to Esa- le n after flirting with sui- cide. She has found solace working in the garden here. After scuttling a 30-year marriage for another man, then dumping th e other man, s he considered "driv- ing west on California 1" — that is, off a cliff. She yearned to be hugged, took est, then came to Esalen to learn how to "stop playing my old games. Asked what she has learned, she looks up from pulling weeds, mops her brnw with a muddy hand an d says, "Some weeds ar e like people; they hurt your back. I've learned to love my weeds." Once a year, the New Jersey dentist comes to Esalen to work up courage to drop burdensome friends. Afterwards, he stops attending dental so- ciety meetings, takes to burning incense in the of- fice and feels closer to his wife a nd kids. "After a cou- ple of weeks here, I'm not afraid of things I thought I was afraid of," he says. Th e 70-odd beds in motel- modern dormitories are booked months in advance by primarily w hite, mid- dle-class seekers who can afford $220-$335 for five-day intensives and all the sprouts they can eat. Health care professionals curious about alternative medicine seminars mingle with lawyers, businessmen and Army brass seking ventilation. After years in the red, Esalen has tight- ened the reins; last year's $150,000 operating profit w as plowed back into the grounds and work-scholar- ships. There are workshops on Transcendental Running; Taoism; Living; Hypnosis; Black Dance; Pleasure; Sensuality; Fear, Panic & Vulnerability; Tuning In ; letting G o & Getting Every- thing; Massage, and so forth. Techniques deve- loped here long ago entered th e marketplace. In fact, the current glut of self-help, from holistic health to pop therapies to nouveau addictions like running, has Esalen to thank for its early role as TH E laboratory for New A ge social scientists. It was perhaps inevitable that a few mad scientists would emerge to vie for the dol- lars and minds of loyal re- cruits. Critics in human poten- tial's high society sniff that Esalen is no longer the frontier, but a boring settle- ment. It may well be the mainstream, but it's not yet so middle-of-the-road that everyone wants their friends and neighbors to know they spent their vaca- tion here. "I t would ruin us," said the wife of an electronics executive who feared her husband would lose his job if their name saw print. "It's sad, but that's the way it is. You say, 'Esalen,' a nd they think, 'Orgy, loose, erotic.'" "Sure, we've been selling th e same old stuff f or a long time. So what?" says Sil- verman. "Esalen is like a child tha t's gone through adolesence and reached its late 20s. Life isn't t he same as at 16. After awhile, yo u look ridiculous crawling around in a crib."
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Transcript of Clothes, Emotional Logjams Disappear (Oct. 11, 1978)
8/13/2019 Clothes, Emotional Logjams Disappear (Oct. 11, 1978)
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/clothes-emotional-logjams-disappear-oct-11-1978 1/1
48 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1978
Clothes, emotional logjams disappearB y A R T H A R R I S
Th e Wash ing ton PostB I G S U R , C a l i f. — G r a d -
ua t io n ceremonies for Ber-nie Gunthe r ' s 5-day , 29 0seminar , F rom Sex to Su -perconsciousness , have ad -journed to the ba ths .
"Ooooooooooooooooh , ' 's ighs a den t i s t f rom For tLee, N.J., as he s l i the rs
into the ho t communa l tub .A n L .A. spec ia l educa t ionteacher s t rokes the nape ofhis neck, fondles an ea rlobe. A veil of s team, riseso ff th e wa te r , so f ten ing th eexpressions of de l igh t onthe eight faces sharing theb a th . They look as sweetand con tended as anyoneRaphae l ever painted.
"I had people touchingeach others ' naked bodiesb efo r e anyone else in this
business," boasts G u n t h e r ." I 've a lways been out land -ish."
Five days ago, when theba the rs a r r ived h e re ' a t t heEsa len I ns t i tu te to loosenup emot iona l log jams , theyw e r e s t r a n g e r s t o e a c hothe r an d themselves. A ndn o w? W e l l , th e c lothes ar eo f f ; everyone is becoming
his own best f r iend . A f u l lmoon dances l ike a m i l l iond ia mo n d s over a d a r k b lue ,u n d u l a t i n g Pac i f i c , a n d theCo s mic Caterer has servedup a b a n q u e t o f stars.
" C a l i f o r n i a i s w o n d e r -f u l " exc la ims a b a t h e r .
"We 'd be out laws backHas t ," says ano the r . "Butt h e y ' r e 25 years b ehin d . ' .W e ' l l t r y a n y t h i n g o u the re ; we' re living on theedge...
N a r a n h om e recipep t a n takes o f f ugly fat.
The N a ra n Plan c an h e lp you lose poundsof unsightly fa t r i g h t in y o u r own home.
T h i s h o m e re c i p e we i g h t - c o n t r o l p la n i s .ea s y t o fo l lo w a n d c o s t s little. G o o y o u r
d r u g s t o r e a n d a s h f o r t h e N a r a n R ed u c i n gP la n . T h e w h o le p la n i s in c lu d e d in e v e r y
p a c k a g e . T he d i re c t io n s ar e right o n t helabe. Pour t he liquid Into a pint b o t t l e
a n d a d d e n o u g h g r a p e f r u i t j u i c e to fill th ebottle. T a h e t wo t a b l es po o n s f u l t w i c e ad a y a s n e e d e d . T a k e t he v i t a m in s u p p l e -
m e n t included a n d f o l l o w t h e l o w c a l o r i e
w e e k l y fo o d m e n u .Your first pu r c h a s e s h o u l d s h o w y o u a
s im p le e a s y wa y lo lose bu lk y f a t a n dh e lp re g a in s l en d er m o r e g r a c e f u l c u r ves ;re d u c ib le po u n d s a n d i n c h es o f e x c e s s fa t
' s h o u ld d i s a ppea r f r o m n ec k . chin. a rm s ,
hips, a b d o m en , c a l ves a n d a n k le s . I f youar e n o t c o m p l e t e l y s a t i s f i e d with y o u r lirst
p u r c h a s e j u s t r e t u r n t h e e m p t y c a r t o n f o r
y o u r m o n ey h a c k . F o l l o w this e a s y w a y
en d o r s ed b y many w ho h a ve tried t h i s p la nto h e lp b r in g b a c k a l lu r in g c u r v e s a n d
g r a c e f u l s l e n d e r n e s s . N o t e h ow qu i c k lyb l o a t d i s a ppea r s , ho w m u c h b e t t e r y o u
f e e l . M o r e a l i v e , y o u t h f u l a p p e a r i n ga n d a c t i ve .
AOVT
George L eonard, 55, for-m er Look editor and a Bos-well of human po ten t ia l , isf l a t on his be l ly , worminghis way th rough the Tun-nel of Fear.
A d v e n t u r e s like the Tun-nel of Fear ar e designed topu t th e c l a s s in touch w i t hthe i r inne r essence. T het un n e l is ac tua l ly a h u m a n
g a u n t l e t of s e e k e r s w hopo un d , p u m m e l an d f rus -t ra te th e c r a w le r as he a t -tempts to belly through tothe o the r end . The mora l :t ha t l i f e just isn' t fair .
In 1961, Michael Murphydrove down to Big Sur wi thpsychologist Dick Price tocheck out 375 ac res ownedby Murphy ' s la te g r a n d f a -the r , a ' Sa l inas doc tor whoonce d r e a m e d of tu rn ingth e rugged , coastal p a r a -"dise into a European-stylespa.. '
M u r p h y t a lked h is g r a n d -mothe r in to g iv ing Esa len ac h e a p , l o n g - t e r m l e a s e( u n t i l 2017) — essentially sohe cou ld pursue h i s co l -leage d a l l i a n c e ' w i t h East -ern mys t ic i sm, psycho logyan d philosophy. When his
g r a n d m o t h e r d i e d , t h eprope r ty went to M u r p h yan d assorted re la t ive s — int r u s t . She re fused to hando v e r t h e l a n d w i t h o u ts t r i n g s .
"You 'd jus t g ive i t tos o m e H i n d u , " s h e o n c e
Washington Post Photo
Bernie Gunther, conductor of the five-day, $290 seminar From Sex to Superconsciousness at Esalen Institute in
Big Sur, Calif., says I've always been outlandish. The institute is no longer a way-out outpost.
sniffed."She w a s n ' t f a r o f f , "
l a ug hs M urphy, 47 , a le anlong d i s tance runne r whotakes l i t t le active part in
Esalen these days .T o h i s n o n p r o f i t s a l o n
c a m e w e s t e r n t h e r a p i s t sfascinated w i t h m i n i n g t hee a s t e rn d i s c i p l i n e s , a n dv a r i o u s y o g a p r a c t i c e swere incorpora ted in to tra-di t iona l repe r to i re s of dig-
g in g ou t the emot ions . Itw as at Esalen tha t gesta l tp s y c h o l o g y f i r s t s h o o kh a n d s w i t h K u n d i l i n iYoga .
P u r v e y o r s o f v a r i o u st h e r a p i e s w e r e f o r e v e rd uel in g over ho w best topeel the emotional onion-skin. Non-Freud ian r iva lse x p e r i m e n t e d d a i l y w i t hsome new technique , theyf rquen t ly sho t f rom the hip
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— and o f ten a t each o ther .Fr i tz Perl s , th e beloved
and fea red godfa the r o fgestalt, o f ten accused Wil lSchutz , the Adam of en-counter groups, of sp read-in g s u p e r f i c i a l i t y i n theform of " ins tan t joy."
" He wa s jus t j e a lous ofm y g a i n i n g p o p u l a r i t y , "says Schutz .
No single path to explor-in g the self was deemedThe Way, a l though Esa lenha d its experiential b i a s .Behaviorists ' view o f ma na s a M r . S t i m u l u s - R e -sponse was discounted ( toom e c h a n i c a l ) , a s w a sF r e u d ' s o b s e s s i o n w i t hh u m a n pa tho logy. Psychesweren ' t s i ck , s i ck , s i ck , bu tj u s t f i n e , thank you .
Esalen's B ig Daddie s fel tt ha t so-called normal peo-pl e we re capab le of theecsta t ic or "peak expe r i -ences" mys t ics have l ongdescr ibed. Only th e properc o m b i n a t i o n o f ingred ien t sw as needed to make th ingshappen , and th i s usua l lycons i s ted o f e s t e r n - s t y l emed i t a t i o n combined wi thp h y s i c a l e x e r c i s e . T h ef ocus wa s o n deve lop ing th e" B o d y - m i n d " — t h e m i n d ,th e body and the emotions,toge the r .
To harmonize the Body-m i n d , i t was necessary tos t r ip away repressions, an da n u m b e r o f f l e d g l i n gtherapies evolved, not theleast among them bioener-g e t i c s , a b o d y t e c h n i q u ethat focuses on open ing upthe body's energy centersr o ug hly cor re sponding toth e chakras o f eas te rn t r a -dition.
" W h e n y o u ' r e d e a l i n gw i t h b locked e n e r g y , al -m o s t a n y t h i n g ca n h a p -pen ," says N ew Y o r k e r
A l a n Schwar tz , w ho com-bines gestalt with bioener-get ics . "Some people wouldbreathe three times and gor igh t up the wa l l — s t a rk ,r a v i n g m a d — o r h a v e a norgasm on the spot.
O f course, E s a l e n ' s I f -I t-F e e l s - G o o d - D o - I t a t m o -s p h e r e n u d g e d t h i n g sa lo n g . " I f you give people al i cense to do th ings theyhave neve r done be fore ,you ' re go ing to get a verypow erf u l v ib ra t ion ," saysEsa len p re s iden t Ju l i an Sil-v e r m a n . "I t w as an e m o -t i o n - c h a r g e d e n v i r o n -m e n t . "
N o w a d a y s , a v i s i to r is asl ike ly to e n c o u n t e r a gov-e rnment bureau cra t a s theg i r l nex t door , a movie s t a ras a g roup o f French tour -ists in sex therapy.
So b s to r ie s abound , as do.tales of renewal .
St range rs ar e in t roducedto Esalen ' s favorite pieceo f ev idence — an th ropo lo-g i s t Gregory Ba te son , 74 , askeptic w ho came he re todie. So far, he hasn' t suc-ceeded.
I t i s h a r d l y w h a t t h elearned old man expectedw h e n he a r r ived s ix monthsago. Doctors had diagnosedl u n g cance r .
Esa len w as seeking a res-iden t g randfa the r , a n d Ba -teson f it the bil l . A f o r m e rUn iv er s i t y o f C a l i f o r n i a re -g en t f a m o u s for his "dou-b le -b ind" theory of sch izo-p h r e n i a , a u t h o r ,p h i l o s o p h e r - a n d e x - h u s -
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band o f M a r g r e t Mead , Ba-teson w as invited t o l ive inF r i t z Perl s ' old residencew i t h his wife , Lois, andtheir 10-year-old dugh te r tos a m p le th e nur tur ing en -vironment, the health foodand the baths .
He is a gentle hu lk of am an with a long beak nose,tw o missing front teeth, atwin k le of p e r m a n e n t be-musement a n d a penchantfo r wear ing loa fe r s wi thoutsocks. The daily doses ofaffect ion he rece ives ar es t a g g e r i n g . B e a u t i f u lwomen a re forever shower-in g h im wi th kisses, an dyoung men vie to sit at hisf ee t . He doesn' t quite knowwhat to m a k e of his suddenlongevity.
"I ju s t don' t feei pa r t i cu-l a r l y l i k e d y i n g t h e s edays, he grins . "They 'vebeen pumping me f u l l ofwheat g ras s j uice ."
More typical of the peo-p l e h e r e i s a f o r t y i s hw o m a n n a m e d B a r b a r awh o s ays s he c a m e t o Esa-le n a f te r f l i r t ing wi th su i -cide . She has f ound solacew o r k i n g i n t h e g a r d e n
here .A f t e r scu t t l ing a 30-year
marr iage fo r ano the r man ,t h e n d u m p i n g th e o the rm a n , s he considered "dr iv-ing west on Ca l i f o rn ia 1" —t h a t i s , o f f a c l i f f . S h eyearned to be hugged, tookest, then c a m e to Esalen tolea rn how to "stop p layingmy o ld games.
A s k e d w h a t s h e h a slearned, she looks up f romp u l l i n g weeds , mops he rb r n w w i t h a m u d d y ha n dan d says, "Some weeds ar el ike peo ple ; they hur t yourback. I 've learned to lovem y weeds ."
Once a y e a r , the NewJ e r s e y den t i s t comes toEsa len to w o r k up couraget o d r o p b u r d e n s o m ef r i e n d s . A f t e r w a r d s , h e
s tops a t tend ing d e n t a l so -c i e t y m e e t i n g s , t a k e s t ob ur n in g incense in the of-f ice an d feels closer to hisw if e a nd k ids . "Af te r a cou-ple of weeks here , I 'm nota f r a i d o f th ings I though t Iwas a f ra id o f ," he says .
Th e 70-odd beds in mote l -m o d e r n d o r m i t o r i e s a r ebooked months in a d v a n c eby p r imar i ly w h i te , mid-dle-class seekers who canaf f o rd $220-$335 for five-dayi n t e n s i v e s a n d a l l t h es p r o u t s t h e y c a n e a t .H eal th c a r e p ro fe ss iona lsc u r io us about a l te rna t ivemed ic in e s e m i n a r s m i n g l ew ith lawye rs , bus inessmena n d A r m y b r a s s s e k i n gv en t i l a t i o n . A f t e r y e a r s inthe red, Esalen has t igh t-ened the reins; last year 's
$150,000 ope ra t ing p r o f i tw as p lowed back into thegrounds and work-scho la r -ships.
There ar e workshops onTranscendenta l R u n n i n g ;Taoism; L iv ing ; Hypnos is ;B l a c k D a n c e ; P l e a s u r e ;Sen s ua l i t y ; F e a r , Panic &Vuln er a b i l i t y ; T u n i n g In ;le tting G o & Ge t t ing Eve ry-t h i n g ; M a s s a g e , a n d s of o r t h . Techniques deve -loped here long ago enteredth e marke tp lace .
In fac t , th e c u r r e n t g l u tof self-help, f rom holistichea l th to pop the rap ie s ton o u v e a u a d d i c t i o n s l i k er u n n i n g , h a s E s a l e n t ot ha n k for i ts early role asTH E laboratory fo r NewA ge social scientists. It was
pe rhaps i n e v i t a b l e t h a t af e w m ad scientists w ouldemerge to vie for the do l -la r s an d m i n d s o f loya l re -cru i t s .
Cr i t i c s in h u m a n p o t e n-t i a l ' s h igh society s n i f f tha tEsa len i s no longe r thefrontier , bu t a boring sett le-m e n t . I t may wel l be themains t ream, but i t ' s no tyet so middle-of- the-roadt h a t everyone wants t he i rf r i e n d s and ne ighbors toknow they spent their vaca-tion here.
"I t w ould ru in us ," sa idthe wi fe of an e lec t ron icsexecut ive who fea red he rhus b a n d w ould lose his jobif the i r name s a w p r i n t ." I t ' s sad , bu t tha t ' s the wayit is . You say, ' E s a l e n , ' a nd
t h e y t h i n k , 'O rgy, loose ,e r o t i c . ' "
"Sure, we've been se l l ingth e s a m e ol d s t u f f f or a longt i m e . S o w h a t ? " s a y s S i l -v e r m a n . " E s a l e n is l ike ach i ld tha t ' s gone th roug hado le sence and reached i t sl a t e 20s. L i f e isn' t t he s a m eas at 16. A f t e r a w h i l e , yo ul o o k r i d i c u l o u s c r a w l i n ga r o un d in a c r i b . "
