Openings : Introduction: on wild facts and altered categories
Geographic, historical, and literary orientations (1882-1962)
Slate's Hot Springs : homestead, family spa, literary paradise
The empowerment of the founders (1950-1960)
The professor and the saint : the early inspirations of Michael Murphy
Buddhism, breakdown, breakthrough : the early inspirations of Richard Price
The outlaw era and the American counterculture (1960-1970)
"Totally on fire" : the experience of founding Esalen
Mind manifest : psychedelia at early Esalen and beyond
Mesmer to Maslow : energy and the Freudian left
Perls to Price: consciousness and the gestalt lineage
Esalen goes to the city: the San Francisco center
On ecstasy, education, and the end of sex : George Leonard and the human potential
The serpent spine of spirit and sex : Don Hanlon Johnson and the somatics movement
The occult imaginal and Cold War activism (1970-1985)
The cosmic womb : Stanislav and Christina Grof and the counsels of spiritual emergence
Golf in the kingdom : Plato and Ramakrishna for Republicans
Jacob Atabet and the Tantra of physics
Superpowers : Cold War psychics and citizen diplomats
Sex with the angels : nonlocal mind, UFOs, and an end to ordinary history
The Tao of Esalen : the spiritual art and intuitive business of managing emptiness
Crisis and the religion of no religion (1985-1993)
The religion of no religion : the Donovan era
Realizing Darwin's dream : the transformation project and the future of the body
Before and after the storm (1993-2006)
After the storm : reassessment, disaster, and renewal
The future of the past and the mystical idea of "America."