brave old world

In 1962, Michael Murphy and his partner Richard Price founded Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Price died in a hiking accident in 1985, but Murphy has continued -- and expanded -- the work of Esalen. Alan Hunt Badiner: In the past, we've talked about Aldous Huxley and Alan Watts being at Esalen.... what, essentially, is the psychedelic history of Esalen. Michael Murphy: I'd been influenced by Sri Aurobindo, who saw human nature as part of cosmic evolution and participating in the awakening of the latent divinity in all things. In framing the language about Esalen, we got considerable help from the last essays of Aldous Huxley, who was writing about human potentialities. His language was more accessible than Aurobindo's. So, our first brochure was titled "Human Potentialities"... Alan Hunt Badiner: So while Esalen had significant psychedelic origins, you weren't there yet? Michael Murphy: I was not impelled by any knowledge of or interest in psychedelics, but once we started, there it was. It was there, first of all, among the first famous figures who came here -- like Aldous Huxley. In Mexico, he gave me Sandoz laboratory LSD and his wife Laura was my sitter. ~ Michael Murphy, as interviewed in Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics Chronicle Books, 2002 “Miscegenation should be prevented, because there is evidence to show cross-breeding between individuals of widely different race is biologically unsound.” ~ Aldous Huxley Complete Essays: Vol. 3, 1930-1935 (as quoted in the Publishers Weekly review)

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