Suzanne Simard is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia as well as the author of the excellent new memoir, “Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.” Suzanne is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; she’s been hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is dazzling and profound. Her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide. Together, we discussed her scientific findings, the dangers of deforestation, how her literary and scientific proclivities intertwine, and what it’s like to have a character in a pulitzer prize winning novel based on her (Richard Powers' "The Overstory"). She's a rather amazing person, passionate about the future of the planet and our shared existence with old-growth forests. Coming up soon at Esalen: Our sense of self develops in connection with others, and our experience in early relationships shapes our beliefs — about ourselves, other people and what is possible for us in our lives. Join long-time Esalen instructor Dorothy Charles for Relational Gestalt Practice: The Transformative Power of Emotion, in which you’ll learn basic gestalt awareness practices to help you recognize limiting relational patterns and enhance your ability to have positive connections with others. This workshop takes place July 26th to July 30th in Big Sur. Find out more or enroll now: https://www.esalen.org/workshops/relational-gestalt-practice-the-transformative-power-of-emotion Did you know that Esalen has a scholarship program? We believe that money should never stand in the way of human potential. Esalen offers a generous student scholarship program that features: Awards of up to 90% of workshop tuition and accommodation Scholarship for qualifying travel A convenient, online application process A mission-driven goal to increase diversity Apply today at http://www.esalen.org/scholarshipFall20 for more information. A growing number of people are aware of the Enneagram as an accurate and profound map of personality. The nine Enneagram types are based on the three primary centers of intelligence: thinking, emotion and instinct. The Transformational Enneagram: Mindfulness, Insight and Experience, a new workshop led by Russ Hudson will emphasize recognizing the ways that each of the nine types plays out in our own personalities. It will combine psychological insight into the inner workings of the types with meditation practices and exercises to lead you toward a more direct experience of qualities of essence such as presence, clarity, compassion and joy. Conversational instruction will be combined with group meditations, small-group work, physical movements and music so that you can more fully integrate the richness of the Enneagram material into their daily work and relationships. The workshop will run from August 8-13 at Esalen in Big Sur. Register now: https://www.esalen.org/workshops/the-transformational-enneagram-mindfulness-insight-and-experience

Laura Mae Northrup is a somatic psychotherapist and podcast creator. Her remarkable show, Inside Eyes, focuses on the use of psychedelics and entheogens to heal from sexual trauma, drawing largely on personal stories from survivors of sexual violence and exploring the ways they have used these medicines to heal. Laura's work focuses on defining sexual violence through a spiritual and politicized lens and supporting the spiritual integrity of collective humanity. Trigger warning: this episode contains frank descriptions of sexual violence and trauma, so please, take care of yourself and use discretion while listening. This episode is not appropriate for children. To listen to the entirety of Inside Eyes, please visit https://www.lauramaenorthrup.com/inside-eyes-podcast

Akuyoe Graham is founder of the Spirit Awakening Foundation, an arts based non-profit dedicated to helping underserved youth in the juvenile justice system. Since 1995, SA has been a pioneer in developing restorative, trauma-informed prevention and intervention programs to incarcerated and systems-involved young people in Los Angeles County. Using the tools of meditation, self-reflection, creative writing, visual arts, mentorship, service, and leadership training, all of which have been guided by evidence-based research, SAF is able to accomplish their mission to help underserved youth build character and raise self-esteem. Visit them and be inspired: https://www.spiritawakening.org And now for some upcoming Esalen offerings: Are you a transgender, non-binary, gender-fluid or gender-exploring individual interested in a deep exploration of  your own gender journey and building community connections? Join Ben Geilhufe and Dr. Jen Hastings at Esalen, July 9th through July 11th, for “Gender Journeys: Exploring Identity in Community”  to explore how gender impacts, influences and informs your day-to-day experiences with both lecture-based sessions and a wide range of personal exploration modalities, including art, movement, and journaling. Find out more or enroll now: https://www.esalen.org/workshops/gender-journeys-exploring-identity-in-community Join us in Big Sur July 23rd to 25th for Reclaiming Your Authentic Power, a workshop led by Justin Michael Williams award-winning instructor and author of Stay Woke: A Meditation Guide for the Rest of Us. In this dynamic three-day course, you’ll break toxic habits, uncover hidden fears, and make behavioral changes to help you overcome personal patterns standing in the way of your goals. Find out more or enroll now https://www.esalen.org/workshops/reclaiming-your-authentic-power Join long-time Esalen instructor Dorothy Charles for Relational Gestalt Practice: The Transformative Power of Emotion, in which youll learn basic gestalt awareness practices to help you recognize limiting relational patterns and enhance your ability to have positive connections with others. This workshop takes place July 26th to July 30th at Esalen. Find out more or enroll now: https://www.esalen.org/workshops/relational-gestalt-practice-the-transformative-power-of-emotion

Akuyoe Graham is founder of the Spirit Awakening Foundation, an arts based non-profit dedicated to helping underserved youth in the juvenile justice system. Since its inception in 1995, SAF has been a pioneer in developing and offering restorative, trauma-informed, prevention and intervention programs to underserved, incarcerated and systems-involved youth in Los Angeles County. Akuyoe speaks about how difficult and broken the juvenile justice system is, what tools she gives the participants in her program to empower them, including meditation, writing, and dramatic arts, and how the young people of Spirit Awakening Foundation have come several times to Esalen institute for a leadership retreat of their own. This episode contains bonus material from a recent conversation that is a follow-up to the original 2021 interview. Spirit Awakening Foundation: https://www.spiritawakening.org/ Donate: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/spirit-awakening-foundation

“All of these sort of regular things that biotech companies do, like snapping up patents so that they can get investor dollars moving forward, they’re intersecting with this culture in the psychedelics world, which is sort of anti-ownership. These forces will clash. They oppose with one another.” - Shayla Love, Vice Media Shayla Love is a senior staff writer at Vice Media whose writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, the Guardian, and more. Her recent focus has been the field of psychedelics and how they exist and interact with the forces of what some refer to as late-stage capitalism. Shayla discussed whether there is a way to corporatize psychedelics responsibly, who has the most to gain in the new landscape of psychedelic capitalism, why the for-profit entity known as Compass Pathways attempted to patent a form of synthetic psilocybin, how and why the accompanying challenge to this patent from a group called FTO, or Freedom to Operate, originated, whether state decriminalization of psychedelics is at odds with federal medicalization, and more. Coming Soon at Esalen: Live and learn at Esalen for 4 weeks as part of our Live Extended Education Program or L.E.E.P.  Under the guidance of our skilled faculty and surrounded by a cohort of twelve other learners, students will be challenged to expand their personal growth edges and open up to greater discoveries of self and community. Learn more and apply, at https://www.esalen.org Integration From the Core: Embodiment through Yoga, Dance, and Sound Meditation. Drawing on the embodied practices of yoga, pranayama , sound meditation, and conscious dance, reconnect your bodies and minds, digest your feelings and emotions, and open yourselves to the wisdom of your heart. Led by Jovinna Chan. Learn more or apply now at https://www.esalen.org.

Dr. Deborah Egerton is a psychotherapist, Enneagram teacher, author, coach, and spiritual teacher. She brings a focus of inclusion, diversity, equity, and anti-racism to her enneagram work and uses that focus to help individuals and organizations release false historical narratives and open their minds and hearts to a more compassionate and connected approach to life. Her work with The Enneagram and Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Anti-racism (IDEA) is designed to help heal our fractured society one connection at a time with compassion, respect, and awareness. Dr. Egerton uses the Enneagram as a mechanism for social justice and anti-racism to reconnect people across all dimensions of diversity, acknowledging and respecting the humanity in us all. https://www.deborahegerton.com/

Laura Mae Northrup is a somatic psychotherapist, educator, podcaster, and author. Laura has been a guest on this show before, in 2020, when we discussed her podcast "Inside Eyes", a one-season tour de force that focuses on people using entheogens and psychedelics to heal from sexual trauma. She is now the author of a new book, "Radical Healership: How to Build a Values-driven Healing Practice in a Profit-Driven World." Northrup views healing work and healing practitioners through a spiritual and political lens, as they do battle with the forces of capitalism while attempting to heal their clients and take care of themselves, all at the same time. Find Laura on the web at https://www.lauramaenorthrup.com/ Check out Radical Healership : https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/radical-healership/

Today we’re sharing a conversation that took place in October, 2022, between members of the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County and the Esalen Institute. Representing the Esselen tribe are Jana Nason and Stephen Vicente Arevalo. Jana Nason is an Esselen and Rumsen descendant, and an enrolled tribal member of the ETMC. She is the nonprofit secretary, and serves on the Tribal Council as Tribal Administrator and Secretary, Publications Chair, and Cultural Resource Committee member. She also manages the Cultural Archeological Monitoring program and serves her Tribe in that capacity. She is dedicated to educations, and protecting and preserving the cultural heritage and ancestral sacred sites.   Stephen Arevalo is a Esselen and Rumsen descendant. He currently serves on the ETMC Tribal Council as well on the Cultural Resource Committee. Stephen serves his Tribe on many levels and is a tribal cultural archeological monitor. He is deeply passionate about his ancestry and has started a language re-learning class for tribal members. He is an educational speaker, and an active community member. Representing Esalen Institute is Douglas Drummond. Douglas serves as the Director for Healing Arts and Somatics and the Director of Community Alliance at Esalen Institute. He is also faculty. Douglas is originally from Aotearoa New Zealand and now makes his home in Big Sur, California in Esselen Territory, with his family. Learn more about the Esselen Tribe at https://www.esselentribe.org/ Coming soon at Esalen: Healing Waters: The Medicine Wheel and Embodied Motion November 14–18, 2022 with Cari Herthel, Douglas Drummond, and guest musician Nick Ayers Where have you come from? Where are you now? Where are you going? We are continuously challenged to find our true purpose and meaning — our ‘direction’ in life. Unconditionally, you are invited to question your direction deeply with a very special union of The Esselen Tribe of Monterey County and the Esalen Institute.Through Healing Waters, we weave the deep knowledge of the medicine wheel, led by Esselen Tribal Medicine Woman Cari Herthel, with the powerful and moving meditation practice of the 5Rhythms®, led by facilitator Douglas Drummond. This week-long exploration into sacred ritual practice and deep intentional movement explores the teachings of the Four Directions within the medicine wheel. We will embrace this knowledge and guidance through ceremony and storytelling, integrating the unique teachings through the 5Rhythms® moving meditation practice. This unification is metaphorically two rivers flowing together into a shared source. Honoring the mana/matsa — the life force — of the healing waters flowing through the sacred land at the Esalen Institute, we will set an intention to gather in community. We will share our stories, honor our differences, and celebrate our unique directions as waypoints that center us. We will breathe life into the endless directions our journeys can lead. In this dynamic program, we will explore: Dance Plant rituals Group sharing Sensory awareness Leadership exercises All levels of experience are welcome. Bring your curiosity and willingness to explore. The Esalen Institute is deeply honored to welcome back the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County to our workshop schedule. This collaboration will be the first in over 10 years, and it will be the catalyst for future partnerships. Acknowledging the presence of the people from this land, on this land, will be a powerful offering for our week together. https://www.esalen.org/workshops/healing-waters-the-medicine-wheel-and-embodied-motion-111422

Justin Michael Williams is an author, activist, meditation teacher and musician. His book Stay Woke established him as a pioneering millennial voice for diversity and inclusion in wellness. His work has been featured by The Wall Street Journal, Grammy.com, Yoga Journal, Billboard, Wanderlust, and South by Southwest. Justin was the artist in residence at Esalen during the month of July. He shared his thoughts with us on racism, healing, virtue signaling, men's eating disorders, Eckhart Tolle, the decolonization of wellness practices, and more.

Today our episode is an encore presentation of Michael Pollan’s keynote presentation at the 2019 Psychedelic Integration Conference at the Esalen Institute. Pollan is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, including 2018’s “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.” This tome has become a four-part Netflix show, also entitled “How to Change Your Mind.” Pollan gives a great speech here, touching upon the pervasiveness of the human tendency to want to change consciousness, the ways that noetic understanding can add to healing on the psychedelic journey, the radical ways that plants can change us and change consciousness, and the ways that he remains a skeptic to some of the more grandiose claims of the psychedelic movement. A must-listen for fans and for newbies alike.