Word: esalen
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...even their own theologies. Many people will reject traditional Western religions, finding inspiration and solace in the mystery cults of the East or in eclectic spiritual systems of their own devising. Religious impulses will find expression as well in interpersonal "T-groups," like those spawned by California's Esalen Institute, and in the occult. For many, astrology, numerology and phrenology will become no longer fads but ways of life...
Consider: Bob (Robert Culp) and Carol (Natalie Wood) are young and rich and good looking and hip (?). They live in Southern California and one weekend, decide to go to an Esalen-esque sensitivity institute. There they discover love and humanity and liberation...
...Alice are square (!). They are nice squares they are friendly squares, they are lovable squares. They have your sympathies from the outset-not only by default, but because they really are swell people. They want to be able to smoke pot without coughing; they want to believe in Esalen; they want to dig wife-swapping. If they rather than Bob and Carol, had gone to Esalen, they might even have been saved...
There is considerable debate about the value of these encounter groups. Some establishments, like the famed Esalen Institute at Big Sur, are rightly praised by reputable psychiatrists. Other observers argue that it is foolish to believe in salvation through collective bloodletting. Berkeley English Professor Frederick C. Crews, for one, calls encounter "extremely naive?a kind of utopianism based on the vulgarization of psychoanalysis...
...publicity, for they will certainly lead to quick vulgarization. The free universities, for instance, have to refuse that absolute corrupter, academic credit. The communes have to decline the slick publicity which will no doubt spawn Communal Weekends at posh resorts. Horny house-wives are already flocking to places like Esalen, looking for miracles and a good...