Word: esalen
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...stopped. How much of what he was saying was true? He had come to Esalen to look at another side of life. What he saw, he was afraid of. He had been afraid when Susie tripped out, but at the same time spellbound -- his strangely dilated eyes were proof of that. "You have to take the biggest risk," John had said. "The further you reach out, the more you will find." The boy wanted a trip of his own. He knew he would be incomplete without one, that there would be a side of himself that would be always hidden...
...arrived at Esalen the night before. He had come because two of its staff members, Stewart and Sara, were friends of his friend Paul. Stewart and Sara had picked them up at the Monterey airport late Sunday afternoon and driven them the 45 miles south, along spectacular Route One, to Esalen. Route One stretches for hundreds of miles along the California coast, and it must be one of the most beautiful roads in the world--it's the road Dustin Hoffman drove on in his little red Alfa on his way to Berkeley. It winds along the coast, on cliffs...
...knew of Esalen were fragments of remembered conversations, rumors, stories, tall tales. There would be a lot of nudity, a lot of touching, a lot of sex. He did not know what else, but the adventure of the drive along Route One set the energy flowing in his body...
They arrived in Esalen around 6:30. The sign, "Esalen Institute, By reservation only," seemed to be advertising a motel; in a couple of senses, perhaps, that is what the place was. At the sign, Stewart turned off Route One, down a very steep hill, around a corner, and suddenly the whole place opened up before them. It was totally hidden, self-contained, isolated. Two hundred feet above, Route One might as well have disappeared...
Second, after splitting into the three groups, each group went down to the baths. The boy had heard about the baths before coming to Esalen. He would later find out that in one of the other two groups two people had stayed in the baths after the group left and made love. He would also find out that in October, 1968, when the vibes at Esalen had been highest, there had been as many as three different couples making love next to each other, on the rest tables next to the baths, in the middle of the afternoon...