Share the experience of the 2013 Centers Gathering hosted by the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California through this visual journey. Explore the sacred land and meet some of the participants who came from around the world in the spirit of reciprocal learning, inspiration and friendship.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEBH4JKNIBg&w=560&h=315]

In April 2013, Esalen Institute hosted the annual Holistic Centers Gathering. Here is an interesting timeline about the development of the organisation…

Timeline

1930 Michael Murphy was born in Salinas, CA and Dick Price was born in Chicago, IL.

1952 Murphy and Price graduated from Stanford University where each independently experienced transcendent moments and extraordinary spiritual experiences.

1956-1957 Murphy resided at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India and formulated an integral practice that engage mind, body, emotion, and spirit.

1956-1957 Price was involuntarily signed into Institute of Living and began to formulate his later focus on alternative therapies.

1960 Price and Murphy met at the Cultural Integration Fellowship in San Francisco.

1961 Price and Murphy moved to Murphy family property at Big Sur Hot Springs.

1962 Esalen Institute incorporated as a non-profit educational foundation that offered weekend seminars with Alan Watts, Aldous Huxley, and Ansel Adams and other artistic and intellectual luminaries. [Read more…]

In April 2013, 28 people from 20 different centers and organisations gathered together for the annual Holistic Centers Gathering. Hosted this year by the Esalen Institute in Big Sur California, the participants shared best practices, business models, challenges and ideas.

Discussions were held on programming, staffing, marketing and decision making, as well as a range of other topics, all in the spirit of friendship, collaboration and reciprocal learning.

The list of centers represented is included here and more news of the Gathering will be posted soon… [Read more…]

Each year there are a variety of topics on the agenda and fundraising is a subject of interest to many.

In 2006, Michael Sullivan coined the term ‘crowd funding’ to describe the process of raising funds online for video projects. Within three years the method had become popularized by musicians, filmmakers and inventors using a variety of crowdfunding sites for artists.

I learnt about crowdfunding – the new way to raise funds which is rapidly increasing in popularity – at the last Gathering and discovered it had been endorsed by President Barack Obama when he signed the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act in 2012. The same year TIME magazine published an article describing and rating the best crowdfunding platforms in the world.

GoFundMe has emerged as one of the most popular crowdfunding sites on the Internet and I’ve just tried it for the first time!

I’m hoping to fund my travel expenses to attend the 2013 Holistic Centers Gathering at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California and am intrigued to see what happens…

There are various options for you to consider for your own fundraising ideas:

[Read more…]

We are excited to host the 2013 Center’s Gathering on April 14-19 2013 and hope to see you here.

Why should you come?

For 50 plus years personal and social growth retreat centers have played an extremely important role in society. Thousands and thousands of people feel bonded to our centers, as if we were part of their family. We shape lives. We build careers. We influence who the next spiritual leaders are. We encourage social change. What an awesome responsibility we have.

So, in this rapidly changing society, with the shifting of consciousness, a major theme for this conference asks: What is the future of centers? What role(s) do we play? Are we evolving? Growing? What does that look like? What does today’s society need? Are centers adversaries or allies, silos or a connected whole? These are important questions to ponder as the centers and the world matures. Individually we are effective; together we are vastly powerful. Imagine us as a tightly bonded network, sharing even one commonly chosen goal or message that we wish to promote in the world. What even greater impact could we have? [Read more…]

Discussions on Starting, Running and Growing a Retreat Center

Each year, retreat centers from around the world gather at a conference known as The Center’s Gathering.

Esalen is hosting the 2013 gathering, and is facilitating a public workshop afterwards. If you are dreaming of starting a retreat center or are simply curious about how centers do what they do, consider joining this workshop for what is sure to be a weekend of rich discussion. While this isn’t a step-by-step process on how to start a retreat center, there will be several representatives from various retreat centers available to explain the beginnings of their organizations and how they conduct business.

Representatives from Esalen and other retreat centers will facilitate this workshop.

See www.esalen.org/workshop/11835 for updates on which centers will be joining the discussion.