Esalen Retreat

Neville in the vegetable garden at Esalen

A typical visit at the conference center at Esalen.

Karl Pribram was a good friend of Michael Murphy (author of the New Age classic: Golf and the Kingdom), who’d created the Esalen Institute on his family’s property in Big Sur, California–perched on the edge of a cliff with hot mineral baths and wild surf below.

This visit (on my birthday!) included a symposium on Mind, Brain, and Spirituality with Karl and friends: the noted Philosopher of Religion, Huston Smith (The World’s Religions); and the famous Tai Chi master Chungliang “Al” Huang (Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain.) All three men knew, and had done projects with the likes of Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Gregory Bateson, Aldous Huxley, and the Dalai Lama. It was lots of fun.

Our private hostess for most of the week was our wild and crazy friend, the artist and world adventuress, Bokara “Bobo” Legendre, whose property adjoining Esalen was itself like a buddhist retreat, set somewhere in Shangri-La.

· Bobo Legendre had a show on LinkTV, called Lunch With Bokara, where she interviewed fascinating folks.

· For more about Philosopher Huston Smith, see his Bill Moyers interview.

· For more about Chungliang “Al” Huang, read one of my favorite books on modern physics (winner of the 1980 National Book Award), by non-physicist Gary Zukav: The Dancing Wu-Li Masters.