Founded by Michael Murphy and Dick Price, The Esalen Institute in Big Sur has been a driving force in the shaping and exploration of culture and consciousness since 1962.
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Aldous Huxley, Terrence McKenna, Ida Rolf, Abraham Maslow, Joseph Campbell, Joan Baez, Ansel Adams, John C. Lilly, Deepak Chopra, and Stanislav Grof are just some of the many magical people to have studied, taught, lived and played there . . .
Toronto. 2013. Age 25.
I was taking everything so seriously that I stopped getting boners and considered putting a bullet in my brain.
I was working as the vice president of an advertising agency, the co-founder of a startup in the gaming industry, and was training intensely ten or more times each week.
I wanted to serve my clients, launch a successful company and attain financial freedom. I wanted to achieve a one-arm handstand, a one-arm chin-up and a 400-pound squat. I wanted to be at my peak every moment of my life.
I was going to bed early, so that I could wake up early. I had amazing friends, but it became difficult to share quality time with them. After all, I had to rise at 7 a.m to work on my handstand. And, I had to ensure that I had proper nutrition and sleep to get the most out of my training.
If I was tired, I had to push through and work harder. There’s no such thing as overtraining. There’s only undertraining, I thought. Plus, I don’t deserve more rest. I spend eight to ten hours per day at a standing desk. That’s rest enough, I told myself, ignoring the fact that I was orchestrating client advertising strategies and trying to launch a startup during those hours.
While I ate, I listened to educational and self-development podcasts. When I had openings in my schedule, I read books, or I trained strength and mobility for a third time that day. All so that I could do more, accomplish more, and be more.
One of the most important aspects of our being—something that will help all of us realize our highest and most authentic selves—is misunderstood by 99% of people.
The thing I’m talking about is movement.
Movement is one of the most foundational elements to health and happiness. Exploring the realms of physicality expands our consciousness. The world begins to feel more like a playground, and life more like a dance.
In modern culture, many people feel limited by their physical vessels, but that need not be the case. You're navigating three-dimensional reality in a spaceship called the body. And, the body is your gift! Your gift to experience, play with, and explore . . .
There is no human endeavour not enhanced by the freedom that comes with a healthy and able body. Each day, we are given the opportunity to expand our movement capacity.
Over the summer solstice, I ventured out of town to celebrate two of my dear friends Pandora and Joanna's birthdays in the form of an Alice-In-Wonderland-esque tea party.
A bunch of brilliant, beautiful and loving women dressed in sexy fishnets and skirts, and a group of brilliant and loving men dressed like mad hatters and Burners partook in the celebration.
I took one tab of LSD with the intention of love, abundance, and bliss. And, oh my goodness . . .
I met Justin Roy in the line at Electric Island a couple of Mondays ago. As soon as we made eye contact, we both knew we were going to be friends forever and that we were brothers who have known each other eternally. My roommate, Tim, had actually mentioned Justin to me a couple months prior: Tim had seen Justin DJ a Conscious Dance Party and had his mind blown.
Justin recently returned from Costa Rica where he concluded a transformative month-long adventure with three Ayahuasca ceremonies alongside his girlfriend Chrissy. His story is amazing, and he and I vibed immediately. We talked, danced, hugged and shared for the next six hours, recognizing tons of synchronicity along the way. He's releasing an album, and he's planning a crowdfunding campaign to launch a tour for his sound activation and shamanic dance parties. I had been looking for the second DJ for my book launch party (having already confirmed John Dill to play), and the universe aligned perfectly to show me Justin. . .
This excerpt is from a Burning Man Book that Sidney Smith and I created. Below recounts our Wednesday morning from Burning Man 2013:
A heart glows in the sky and a colourful Robot glows next to it. We pedal towards over a thousand bouncing bodies on a desert in space. We park our bikes amongst the others, lock them up and run into the place we’ve been looking for. The music enters through our ears and slides past the drums, creeps into and envelops our minds, pours down our neck and floods our heart, caressing it in robotic sounds, symbiotic with our biology, we are cyborgs: plugged into these electronic noises to power our legs, our hips, our knees, our feet, all our extremities. The sounds blast and the bass thumps, and every once in a while, we thrust and we jump. We grind and we move, we shift and we slide, and it’s all, ALL about the groove. We fly with capes, steer with driving gloves, bob with top hats, and see with hearts in and on our eyes. Extrapolate the four of us to include the thousands more, and the variety, the creativity, the energy, the expression is a sight to behold, and with everything we do, there is no reason to withhold. . .
