From Spiritual Retreats to Glamping (7)

The list of lecturers who participated at Esalen in its early days reads like a Who’s Who of avant-garde thinkers, artists, psychologists, and philosophers. It includes Erik Erikson, Ken Kesey, Alan Watts, John Lilly, Buckminster Fuller, Aldous Huxley, Linus Pauling, Fritz Perls, Joseph Campbell, Robert Bly and Carl Rogers. They were joined by musicians George Harrison, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills Nash & Young and other kindred souls.*

The Big Sur Folk Festival 1964-1971

The festivals were founded by Nancy Carlsen.

*The Esalen Institute And The Human Potential Movement Turn 50 by Debra Ollivier, Huffungton Post

Big Sur’s wild scenic beauty is host to many places catering to spiritual solace. Esalen’s with its credo of “Religion of no religion” is close to two other major retreat centers. The New Camaldoli Hermitage is a Benedictine Hermitage in the Santa Lucia Mountains that offers silent, undirected retreats. The Tassajara Zen Mountain Center: Tassajara Hot Springs is a collection of natural hot springs in the Ventana Wilderness, within the Santa Lucia Range and Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County, California. The hot springs have been the site of various resorts since the 1860s. Since 1967, the hot springs have been the site of a Buddhist monastery which is opened to visitors during the summer months only.*

* description: Tassajara Hot Springs sitting area by the front office. * photographer: Earthworm * photographer location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA * photographer_url: [http://www.flickr.com/people/earthworm/] * flickr_url: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/

Rustic cabins and family campsites aside, there are luxury accommodations in Big Sur. The Post Ranch Inn serves the wishes of the wealthy travelers and The Ventana Big Sur hosts corporate retreats, executive summits and offers tent cabins in the redwoods with fire pits, catered meals, yoga classes, sommelier wine & cheese hour and evening bed turn-downs on a premium mattress and linens called Glamping.

But of course there is always outright ownership of an A frame home on a bluff overlooking the Pacific ocean.