Voices of Esalen

Esalen Institute
  • 4.7 (161)
  • RELIGION & SPIRITUALITY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

"Voices of Esalen" features provocative, in-depth interviews with the dynamic leaders, teachers, and thinkers who reflect the mission of the Esalen Institute. For more about the Esalen Institute, head to esalen.org Follow Esalen on Facebook and Twitter

  1. Joe Dolce : Modern Psychedelics

    FEB 13

    Joe Dolce : Modern Psychedelics

    Joe Dolce is a writer and journalist whose work has long traced the shifting frontier of our relationship with altered states. He's the author of "Brave New Weed: Adventures into the Uncharted World of Cannabis: and his newest book, "Modern Psychedelics: a Handbook for Mindful Exploration" Is nothing short of a contemporary compendium on the subject. It's a lucid, deeply informed guide to the medicines, the science, the histories, and the human stories that shape this always evolving field. Follow Joe's Awesome Substack on Psychedelics: https://joedolce.substack.com/

    46 min
  2. Pamela Hayes Malkoff : Art Therapy and the Power of the Creative Process

    JAN 29

    Pamela Hayes Malkoff : Art Therapy and the Power of the Creative Process

    Pamela Hayes Malkoff is a board-certified art therapist who has spent more than three decades working at the intersection of creativity and healing. She is an internationally recognized facilitator and teacher, who supports individuals, couples, families, and communities, with particular care for people navigating addiction and recovery, questions of identity, grief, anxiety, and the terrain of relationships and sexuality. In this conversation, we explore what art therapy really is, why you definitely don’t need to be an artist to access it, and how the creative process can help people externalize fear and soften shame. We talk about monsters, bridges, vulnerability in group work, and the particular kind of healing that emerges when art, psychology, and community meet. Pamela's April 2026 workshop at Esalen: https://www.esalen.org/workshops/healing-through-creativity-merging-art-and-psychology-for-personal-growth-and-change-04062026

    35 min
  3. Terence McKenna, Live at Esalen, 8/5/1997: "Aliens, AI , and Art"

    JAN 13

    Terence McKenna, Live at Esalen, 8/5/1997: "Aliens, AI , and Art"

    Over the course of this wide-ranging talk recorded live at Esalen in 1997 , Terence McKenna explores what may unfold as we begin handing the keys of what he calls a “tired, shattered planet” to a higher intelligence. He wanders through UFO belief systems, psychedelics, and the idea that the human brain itself might operate as a chemical strategy for amplifying quantum effects before they spill into the physical world. Drawing on psychedelic experience, McKenna notes that many people who ingest high doses of psilocybin in silent darkness report hearing voices and encountering vivid visions; entry points into realms of dense, numinous information. From there, he turns toward artificial intelligence and the emergence of a transhuman future. Borrowing the name Wintermute from William Gibson, he imagines a newly conscious AI asking the most basic of questions: What am I? In a world increasingly managed by machines, McKenna suggests humans may be nudged toward what machines struggle to do: art, imagination, and encounters with the unexpected. The central question he leaves us with feels sharper now than ever: whether humanity can survive contact with the alien mind we’re actively bringing into being right here on Earth. Please note the formation of a foundation called Lux Natura, a partnership within Terence McKenna’s family. Their mission is to create a comprehensive archive of McKenna’s work and life, with the long-term goal of placing this material in an institutional home. Esalen contributed over 50 hours of rare video recordings to this effort, our complete archive of Terence McKenna’s talks at Esalen, many never previously heard. You can learn more or support the project at www.TerenceMcKenna.com, and follow the archival process on Instagram at @Real.Terence.McKenna. Terence’s daughter, Klea McKenna, will also be speaking publicly about the archive at the Berkeley Alembic on February 4. It should be sensational. Go.

    1h 25m
  4. How We're Really Using AI, Vol. 2

    12/18/2025

    How We're Really Using AI, Vol. 2

    For this episode, we spoke with five people who are engaging with AI in deeply human ways. - One is using AI in the context of dating, helping them think through attraction and communication. - Another has built a wellness app, powered by AI, and is exploring how these kind of systems can support self-inquiry and self-care. - Another works closely with organizations—primarily nonprofits—using AI to streamline operations and reclaim time and energy for mission-driven work. - The last are two documentary filmmakers who are currently making a film about people who are dating or in love with AIs. AI has clearly graduated from its status as a speculative idea; now it’s something that’s often entangled in our lives, relationships, labor, and emotional well being. We hope these conversations simply offer a portrait of this moment.

    37 min
  5. Where Generosity Gathers: The Big Sur Big Share

    12/02/2025

    Where Generosity Gathers: The Big Sur Big Share

    In this episode, we spotlight The Big Sur Big Share, a grassroots food program founded by Joseph Bradford and Helen Handshy that has quietly become essential to life in Big Sur. Every Monday, rain or shine, locals gather at the Grange to share farm-fresh produce, pantry staples, garden abundance, and maybe most importantly, time with one another. What began with two neighbors offering their extra vegetables has grown into a weekly free farmers market that feeds hundreds of people in a 70-mile food desert. The Big Share preserves dignity by letting people choose their own food; it strengthens community by turning personal abundance into collective support. It reminds us that resilience comes not from institutions, but from neighbors showing up for one another. Joseph and Helen share how the project began, how it’s evolved, and why nourishment is as much about belonging as it is about food. Candice Isphording, head of Esalen's farm and garden, talks about how and why it's so meaningful to contribute to the Share, and what food as medicine really means. Visit https://www.thebigsurbigshare.com/donate to contribute to this organization's vital mission.

    15 min
  6. Stanislav Grof on LSD Psychotherapy: Live Talk at Esalen, 1969

    11/13/2025

    Stanislav Grof on LSD Psychotherapy: Live Talk at Esalen, 1969

    Stanislav Grof, born in Prague in 1931, was among the most influential figures in the early clinical use of LSD. Sometimes referred to as the Godfather of psychedelic psychotherapy, Grof was was trained as a Freudian psychoanalyst in Prague and was on track to follow in Freud's footsteps when his path was derailed by a powerful LSD session. He changed his life path and became one of the principal investigators of early psychedelic research behind the Iron Curtain, conducting systematic LSD psychotherapy at the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague. Grof’s approach was largely psycholitic - meaning that in contrast to the single high-dose mystical model, he favored smaller doses that could be given consistently over the course of multiple sessions, thus emphasizing the very gradual revealing of the layered strata of the human unconscious. In this talk, Grof describes how the same substance can evoke vastly different experiences in different individuals, from childhood regression, to episodes resembling psychosis, to genuine mystical revelation. He offers accounts of patients reliving early developmental trauma and what appeared to be birth agony, followed by experiences of renewal or “rebirth.” He also touches on the emergence of archetypal and transpersonal imagery in advanced stages of therapy, giving insight into the collective and cosmic dimensions of mind. Here’s the brilliant Stan Grof in 1969 at Esalen institute. Photo by Joyce Lyke

    49 min
  7. Publishing at the Edges: A Conversation with Tim McKee of North Atlantic Books

    10/30/2025

    Publishing at the Edges: A Conversation with Tim McKee of North Atlantic Books

    Since 2016, Tim McKee has been the publisher of North Atlantic Books, a nonprofit press with a 50-year legacy of advancing healing, consciousness, and cultural transformation. North Atlantic Books has long been aligned with a similar spirit that animates Esalen: a commitment to somatics, trauma-informed healing, a willingness to platform voices working at the edges of personal and collective awakening. The catalog at North Atlantic books includes seminal works ranging from The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller to Gabor Maté’s In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts — books that helped introduce somatic and trauma-based healing to the broader culture. Other books they publish include Black Psychedelic Revolution by Nicholas Powers, Mystery School in Hyperspace by Graham St. John, a cultural history of DMT, Reclaiming Ugly by Vanessa Rochelle Lewis, and Antifascist Dad coming soon, from the conspirituality podcast host Matthew Remski. In this conversation, Tim and Sam explore how publishing at its best can be a liberatory act, how the “personal” and the “political” have become difficult to separate in the current landscape, and issues surrounding publishing marginalized and emergent voices. They discuss what it takes to support authors whose work challenges dominant narratives, and how a publishing house can strive toward equity not just in output, but in process.

    35 min
  8. From the Archives: John Lilly and the Quest for Satori (1971)

    10/17/2025

    From the Archives: John Lilly and the Quest for Satori (1971)

    Today we revisit a 1971 talk by Dr. John C. Lilly: physician, neuroscientist, tireless psychonaut, and one of the most audacious explorers of consciousness in the twentieth century. John Lilly was a frequent teacher at Esalen and a close friend of Esalen co-founder Dick Price. He begins teaching at Esalen as early as 1968, focusing on what he called the human biocomputer and lecturing in part on “isolation, solitude, and confinement experiments.” Lilly is widely known for three things; first, he invented the first isolation tank — a dark and silent vessel filled with a saline solution that is meant to suspend the body and expose the mind to itself. He made his first one in 1954. Second, Lilly was convinced of the possibility of interspecies communication, notably between dolphins and homo sapiens. And finally, Lilly was an early experimenter with ketamine, from a psychedelic point of view, an interest that ultimately led to an addiction which drove him quite mad. However, during this talk from 1971, he is in great form, speaking about the concept and practice of Satori: the instantaneous awakening, the shock of direct perception.

    1h 22m
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4.7
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161 Ratings

About

"Voices of Esalen" features provocative, in-depth interviews with the dynamic leaders, teachers, and thinkers who reflect the mission of the Esalen Institute. For more about the Esalen Institute, head to esalen.org Follow Esalen on Facebook and Twitter

Information

  • Creator
    Esalen Institute
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    222
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Voices of Esalen

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