In Rajeev Balasubramanyam's novel, Professor Chandra Follows his Bliss, about a man's golden years' journey to finding himself, Oxford Professor P. R. Chandrasekhar takes a course in self-awareness at California's legendary Esalen Institute. Tucked between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean, Esalen is gifted with the relaxing sounds of sea lions as they frolic in the tide, truly dark night skies resplendent with millions of twinkling stars, and hot mineral springs to relax the body and mind.

If there is any place that can be called the seat of America's counterculture and humanism movements it might be Esalen. The nonprofit organization owes its 20th century origins to Stanford graduates Michael Murphy and Dick Price, who created it in 1962 as a retreat dedicated to the exploration of what Aldous Huxley called human potentialities. Because its origins coincided with the era of the Baby Boomers' experimentation in thought, mind/body connections, Eastern philosophy, and ...